Enhancing Textile Wastewater Treatment Performance: Optimization and Troubleshooting (Decision Support) via GPS-X Model

Textile factory water consumption could be optimized to minimize the generation of wastewater, reduce treatment costs, and promote resource recovery. However, downstream plant operation and management is a prime concern in the textile industry, particularly bringing treated wastewater effluent to an acceptable discharge limit. The aim of the study was to optimize key process control parameters to the observed operational challenges of existing processes and suggest an operational guide to the operators and decision makers to enhance the treatment performance in GPS-X. The formulated troubleshooting and decision support strategy, and the optimization results of waste-activated sludge in the primary and secondary clarifiers, was within the range of 15 +/- 5 m3/d and 83 +/- 7 m3/d, respectively, with a recycle-activated sludge flow of 150 +/- 10 m3/d. The sludge retention time was 5 +/- 1 d and 6.7 +/- 0.5 d in the secondary and primary clarifiers, respectively. The addition of a carbon source in the form of molasses had a flow of 0.5 +/- 0.05 m3/d, and the variation in the influent due to wastewater characteristics and rainfall was optimized to 600 +/- 50 m3/d. The optimum air flow into the aeration tank was 550 +/- 5 m3/hr and saved 91.5% of energy in the optimized process. Thus, the study is indispensable for the effective and efficient operation of the plant and serves as a good guide to the plant operators and decision makers for the best course of action.