Advanced Oxidation of Segregated Streams for Effective Color Removal from Denim Processing Effluents

The study introduced footprint analysis as a new methodology and focused on differentiating wastewater streams with the highest color content and optimizing the advanced oxidation process for the segregated streams for effective color removal from denim processing. Experiments were implemented to four segregated streams rather than the entire plant effluent. A flow proportional composite mixture of segregated streams was used for color removal experiments using the advanced oxidation process with ozone and hydrogen peroxide and Fenton oxidation as other alternatives. The latter yielded the best results achieving total removal of color below visual detection limit after an optimum reaction time of 10 minutes. The Fenton oxidation process was also applied to a representative sample from the plant effluent after the physical-chemical treatment sequence, where color absorbance levels were lowered at all wavelengths below 1.0 m-1. The merit of the new footprint approach was confirmed by the results, which provided a conclusive indication that color treatment at source, implemented on selected segregated wastewater streams, presented concrete advantages over the end of pipe treatment of the overall effluent.