Coal fly ash as adsorptive material for treatment of a real textile effluent: operating parameters and treatment efficiency

The experimental results performed after the application of one single-stage treatment by sorption onto coal fly ash are evaluated in order to decolorize a real textile effluent of a private company specializing in manufacturing of cotton fabrics (i.e., sorption performance applied for a real textile effluent collected after the fabric dyeing, rinsing, and final finishing steps). The experiments are focused on studying the effect of initial textile effluent pH, adsorbent dose, temperature and adsorption time, considered as operating parameters of sorption process for high pollutant removals (e.g., organic pollutants as dyes, phenols, polymeric, and degradation compounds), and decoloration. The results indicate high values of decoloration degree (55.42–83.00 %) and COD removal (44.44–61.11 %) when it is worked at pH ≤2 with coal ash dose of 12–40 g/L, temperature higher than 20–25 °C, and continuous static operating regime (with an initial agitation step of 3–5 min). The treated textile effluent fulfills the quality demand, and is recyclable, inside reused or discharged after a stage of neutralization (standard pH of 6.5–8.5 for all textile effluent discharges). Also, the final effluent is able to follow the common path to the central biological treatment plant (i.e., a centralized treatment plant for all companies acting in the industrial site area with mechanical–biological steps for wastewater treatment) or may be directly discharged in the nearly watercourse.