Sustainable Primary Treatment of Textile Wastewater: Evaluating Water Hyacinth—Eichhornia crassipes Biomass as a Low-Cost Bioflocculant

Water treatment is required for the textile sector to meet National Environmental Quality criteria (NEQS) and client-specific effluent criteria, such as zero discharge of toxic chemicals (ZDHC). Textile Wastewater suspensions were flocculated or coagulated using ferric chloride, alum sulfate, or poly aluminum chloride (PAC). The Water Hyacinth (WH) plant, which grows mostly on residential Wastewater ponds, is utilized for wetland Wastewater treatment to mitigate the harmful effects of these chemicals on the ecosystem and facilitate the creation of massive chemical sludge. Its efficacy as a flocculent was evaluated in this study. Under specific operating conditions, two consecutive processes that use flocculation and sedimentation treatments were used. Powdered WH stem and leaves were utilized as a bioflocculant for this purpose. The findings of experiments conducted with this biomass were extraordinary in that they sufficiently reduced the levels of total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS), and chemical oxygen demand (COD). The percentages of reduction for these parameters are as follows: for WH stem powder (WHSP), it was 9.5%, 42.3%, 5.5%, respectively and for WH leaves powder (WHLP), it was 18.2%, 74.4%, 16.4%, respectively. This study’s experimental findings confirmed that the Wastewater’s initial treatment had resulted in a decrease in COD, TSS, and TDS. This biomass derived from plants has fewer adverse effects on the environment and produces less sludge. For the initial treatment of textile effluent, this biomass can replace conventional chemicals in an environmentally responsible manner.