Advanced treatment of textile wastewater using complementary integration systems: ionizing radiation, biological process, and multi-media filter

Abstract Textile industries contribute significantly to the global economy; however, they pose a serious environmental threat due to the discharge of undesired dye runoff and intensely colored effluent. This study evaluates and compares various textile wastewater treatment strategies, including biological, physical, and integrated systems. Out of fourteen bacterial isolates, a newly isolated strain, Staphylococcus auricularis TWD11, and a bacterial consortium, TWDcon, exhibited the highest decolorization efficiencies. The optimized parameters yielded decolorization rates of 83.50 ± 0.51% and 68.02 ± 0.10%, respectively. When ionizing irradiation was applied, increasing the dosage from 4 to 20 kGy raised the decolorization rate from 43.91 ± 6.48 to 79.51 ± 0.01% via gamma irradiation, while electron beam irradiation enhanced the decolorization potential from 54.03 ± 1.04 to 93.09 ± 1.01%. In terms of efficiency, safety, reusability, and economic feasibility, complementary integrated systems were studied. In the suggested system, undiluted effluent was exposed to electron beam irradiation (4 kGy) during the primary stage, followed by a secondary biological treatment using optimized Staphylococcus auricularis TWD11, and finally passing through a tertiary treatment process in which wastewater traversed a low-cost multi-media filter. Integrated system treatment achieved decreases in chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, total suspended solids, total dissolved solids, and color by 96%, 93%, 97.80%, 81.70%, and 99.20%, respectively. Post-treatment, degradation metabolites were examined using ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, high-performance liquid chromatography, and toxicity assessment. Complementary integration systems provide a sustainable, efficient, and safe biotechnological solution for textile effluent remediation.