Green practice of defoamers in textile wastewater treatment - a win-win strategy for cost reduction and efficiency improvement

Textile wastewater contains a lot of surfactants, and the foam problem seriously affects the treatment efficiency. Environmentally friendly defoamers can not only quickly break bubbles, but also reduce sludge production, becoming a key additive for wastewater discharge standards.   

The foam problem in textile wastewater treatment mainly comes from the alkyl phenol polyoxyethylene ether (APEO) and dye dispersant in desizing and refining processes. A large number of foam will cover the surface of the aeration tank, which will reduce the oxygen transfer efficiency and increase energy consumption by 15%~20%. And environmentally friendly defoamers are embedded with EO/PO (ethylene oxide/propylene oxide) in the organic silicon chain segment, balancing defoaming efficiency and degradability. According to the information provided by the measured data, a certain printing and dyeing factory reduced sludge production by 25% after using environmentally friendly defoamers.   

The full chain innovation of green defoamers from source design to terminal application has proven the feasibility of the synergy between environmental protection and benefits. In the future, technologies such as blockchain can be used to trace the carbon footprint of raw materials and develop self degradable intelligent defoamers to further consolidate win-win outcomes.