Abstract:
Textile industry production processes generate one of the most highly polluted wastewaters
in the world. Unfortunately, the field is also challenged by the availability of relatively cheap and
highly effective technologies for wastewater purification. The application of natural zeolite as a depth
filter offers an alternative and potential approach for textile wastewater treatment. The performance
of a depth filter treatment system can be deeply affected by the column depth and the characteristics
of the wastewater to be treated. Regrettably, the information on the potential of these filter materials
for the purification of textile wastewater is still scarce. Therefore, this study investigated the potential
applicability of natural zeolite in terms of column depth for the treatment of textile wastewater.
From the analysis results, it was observed that the filtration efficiencies were relatively low (6.1 to
13.7%) for some parameters such as total dissolved solids, electrical conductivity, chemical oxygen
demand, and sodium chloride when the wastewater samples were subjected to the 0.5 m column
depth. Relatively high efficiency of 82 and 93.8% was observed from color and total suspended solids,
respectively, when the wastewater samples were subjected to the 0.5 m column depth. Generally,
the 0.75 m column depth achieved removal efficiencies ranging from 52.3% to 97.5%, whereas the
1 m column depth achieved removal efficiencies ranging from 86.9% to 99.4%. The highest removal
efficiency was achieved with a combination of total suspended solids and 1 m column depth (99.4%).
In summary, the treatment approach was observed to be highly effective for the removal of total
suspended solids, with a 93.8% removal efficiency when the wastewater was subjected to the 0.5 m
column depth, 97.5% for 0.75 m column depth, and 99.4% for 1 m column depth. Moreover, up to
218.233 mg of color per g of the filter material was captured. The results derived in this study provide
useful information towards the potential applicability of natural zeolite in the textile wastewater
treatment field.
