Removal of Congo Red Dye from Textile Wastewater by Aqueous Two-Phase Systems

The high volume of wastewater generated in the textile industry and the related die may sometimes be discharge into the environment. Azo dyes are an important class of dye compounds that are being widely used in textile industry. Several physical and chemical techniques are usually used for the removal of dyes from wastewater and a few of them have been accepted in the textile industries. Specific aim of this study was to investigate the potential use of aqueous two-phase systems in removal of the azo Congo Red dye from the textile wastewater effluent. In this study, the various aqueous two-phase systems containing polyethylene glycol (PEG) with 1000, 4000 and 8000 g/mole of different types of salts including Sodium Sulfate, Sodium Sulfite and Sodium Carbonate. The results of this study showed that the polyethylene glycol with 1000 g/mole including sodium sulfite was most suitable for the removal of the Congo Red dye from textile wastewater with the efficiency of about 98.8 percent. This result was obtained under operating condition consisting of: 25 w/w percent polyethylene glycol 1000 with 10.7 w/w percent sodium sulfite. From the results of this study we can conclude that the ATPS is an effective method for successfull removal of Congo red dye from textile industry.