MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILES # 25

Background:

A month long study was carried out in a textile mill in India to identify measures for water conservation during textile wet processing. This textile mill is a member of the Bombay Textile Research Association. The objective was to recover and reuse  water to the extent possible in the wet processing stages at the mill.

Cleaner Production Principle:

Recovery, reuse and recycle; Process modification; Material Substitution

Cleaner Production Application:

The following measures were suggested at the end of the study:

1. Reduce the rate of flow of water and the throttling of water supply in washing machines.
2. Counter the current flow of washing on soapers, mercerizing machines, J-box range, etc.
3. Effectively reuse wash waters at some preceding point in the processing sequence, or by a common sump and pump technique.
4. Collect and reuse steam condensate for boiler feed water.
5. Reuse steam condensate from caustic soda recovery plant in washing of mercerized goods.
6. Apply static washes on jiggers in place of overflow washes.
7. Use sodium bicarbonate in place of acetic acid for the oxidation of vat-dyed goods for easy removal of caustic soda.
8. Recycle water for washing of blankets on printing machines.
9. Reduce the number of washings in a process sequence by giving appropriate treatments to fabric. The bulk trails for such conservation and reuse measures were carried out in the mills during the processing of a number of fabric varieties like bleached longcloth, dyed poplin, bleached mulls/voiles, and dyed mulls and voiles.

All the suggestions were fully implemented.

Environmental and Economic Benefits:

The benefits of implementing the above recommended measures included both water and energy conservation. The savings due to water reuse are provided below:  

Savings from reduced water consumption amounted to 130,320 rupees per year (taking cost of water at 60 rupees per 10,000 liters of water).

Operational and Maintenance Costs : Total fresh water consumption before survey was 183,350 liters/day. After survey was 11,950 liters/day.

Total savings in water consumption per year 21,720,000 liters.

Monetary benefits amounted to 130,320 rupees per year.

Constraints:

No information provided.

Contacts:

Type of Source Material: Conference proceedings

Citation : "Seminar on Avenues for Cost Reduction in Chemical Processing of Textiles", held on February 26, 1985 by Bombay Textile Research Association, Bombay 400 086, BTRA No. 06.3.1

Review Status:

This case study was originally compiled by the UNEP Working Group of Textiles. It underwent a UNEP IE funded technical review in 1994 for quality and completeness. It was edited for the ICPIC diskette in July of 1995. Subsequently, a technical review of the case study was conducted in September 1998 by Dr. Prasad Modak, Environmental Management Centre, Mumbai, India.