Integrated Biotechnological Interventions in Textile Effluent Treatment

Abstract

Water is an indispensable source for life on earth. With the rampant growth of textile industry, ramification of significant amount of water consumption and production of immense volumes of contaminated water has been well witnessed. This highly polluted effluent being detrimental to the flora and fauna is often too difficult to manage as it contains a substantial amount of toxic and recalcitrant synthetic dyes. The unconventional processes based on biotechnological principles are enticing huge attention in the treatment of the toxic textile effluents, since they often avoid utilization of large amount of supplementary energy and chemicals, generates less sludge, cost-efficient, and environmentally benign. These processes include but not limited to enzyme and whole cell-based biocatalysts (biodegradation of organic phenolic compounds and hydrocarbons by means of immobilized enzymes and whole cells), microbial fuel cell technology (integrating the biological organisms to generate electricity from the wastewater by consuming the pollutants present in it), nano-biotechnology (nanocatalysts pooled with an ulterior biological process to reduce color, COD, aromatic compounds, and toxicity), and functional metagenomics (identify novel genes that encode different classes of enzymes which are useful for bio-remediation). Regardless of some disadvantages, these processes are essentially powerful and can be gradually upgraded via advance biotechnological processes that are associated with the production of highly degrading and resilient tailored organisms. This is a sustainable approach to contributing innovatively to traditional physicochemical processes. The tools of integrated biotechnology can thus be used in the manufacturing of textile effluents as effective technical solutions.