Sustainable textile future: Award-winning innovation saves resources and environment

A recent groundbreaking project led by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at North South University has developed a low-cost sustainable technology for treating textile wastewater and with the treated water with quality that can be reused. 

Their research demonstrates the potential of utilising locally available bleach and blast furnace iron slag for tertiary treatment, resulting in treated wastewater that meets Environmental Conservation Rules 2023 standards and is suitable for reuse in wet processing of textiles, reads a press release.

This innovative approach holds immense promise, particularly for economies like Bangladesh, where 84% of foreign earnings are derived from the textile and readymade garment industry. By using materials within the local supply chain, this method eliminates dependency on imported chemicals and energy, offering a sustainable solution for resource-trapped economies. By repurposing the treated water, the industry reduces the reliance on groundwater extraction a precious resource that is depleting. The pilot implementation of this approach took place within an operational textile facility.

This research concept received the Best Paper Award at two international conferences. The first was the 2nd International Symposium on One Health, One World, jointly organized by the One Health One World Research Initiative, the University of Tokyo in Japan, and the University of Dhaka. The second accolade came from the 4th International Conference - Strategies toward Green Deal Implementation - Water, Raw Materials & Energy. This conference was organized by The Division of Biogenic Raw Materials at the Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the Ministry of Climate and Environment, Republic of Poland, the National Centre for Research and Development, and Polish Waterworks, The Chamber of Commerce.

The whole experiment was conducted by Md. Sahil Rafiq and Mohammad Shakhawat Hosen Apurba, recent graduate students of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering North South University and was supervised by Dr. Nadim Reza Khandaker, Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering North South University.