Microbial Textile Finishing with Anaerobic Mixed Cultures: Integration of Wastewater Purification and Production Process

Advanced anaerobic wastewater treatment units are so far very rarely used in the textile industry. The usual practice, the discharge of large, diluted wastewater quantities to municipal treatment plants, is often expensive and inefficient. One solution to this problem is the utilization of microbial-biotechnological processes described and evaluated in this paper. The anaerobic degradability of a selected model sizing agent and a model impurity from the untreated fiber is investigated. The suggested procedure is an example of a new combination of production process and wastewater purification in one integrated process.