BIOTECHNOLOGY APPLIED TO THE DEGRADATION OF TEXTILE INDUSTRY DYES

When we got together to determine our Project focus we started by enunciating the
problem. We immediately focused on the environmental problem that concerns us
all. However the environmental problem is too big to solve with just one project so
we decided to break it down in smaller parts and formulated a single question to
address with engineering techniques.

Once we arrived at the conclusion that one of the main environmental problems in
an industrial society was the pollution of the water supply and the secondary
pollution of residual waters we determined to make the issue even smaller than that
determined that a single sector of industry would be our focus for the project. As
such we picked the proper management of dyes in the water supply and its
biodegradation with bacteria. These dyes are produced mainly by the textile
industry, which is our main focus of concern. This requires use new technologies
such as biotechnology as a method to achieve our purpose in a friendly way with the
environmental. Thus reducing pollutants discarded by industries.

We determinated the number of participants to be 10 who were carefully selected to

be assigned to a specific area. The experts’ team is conformed by a biologist,
environmental engineer, chemical engineer and a logistic group. The biologist is in
charge of the investigation of the bacterium, its habitat, biological processes and
effectiveness in degradation. The environmental engineer is responsible study of
water sources, the degree of pollution and the environmental impact of waste dyes.
The chemical engineer is one who studies the nature of dyes, its toxicity and
separation methods after the process between biomass and treated water. As well
as, to provide the correct environmental conditions and nutritional requirements of
bacteria. The logistic group is comprised of students from related fields (chemistry
and environmental engineering and biology), which serve as support to
professionals in the sampling, data collection and verification of results.

For the time scale, we use the CPM diagram. We identify processes that could be
taken simultaneously and I just its duration. Thus was established that taking water
samples and study at the same time could lead to the study of bacteria and its
environment. Then we begin the adjustment of the bioreactor and the bacteria to
continue the process. The last step is implement the experiment out of the
laboratory.

The textile industry because is one of the largest producers of waist water with
presence of dyes so we conclude, this is a great process because is a biological
technique that allows the dyes waste products elimination and it doesn’t need a big
amount of energy and chemical compounds thus is friendly with the environment.
Actually all those ideas are only tested en a laboratory scale because there are
others problems that will be solved, it is an effective technique if we compare our
results with others conventional methods for the treatment of textile industry waste
water considering parameters such as time, resources (energy) and results.