Removal of endocrine-disrupting chemicals from textile industry effluents by nanofiltration

Textile finishing industry wastewaters contain micropollutants such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals in addition to the conventional pollutants since advanced manufacturing activities provide additional features to the textiles to make them shrink-proof, water-proof, wrinkle-proof, rot-proof, distasteful to moths, and mildew, flame-resistant, etc. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals can interfere with the endocrine system, exert endocrine-modulating behavior, and cause adverse health effects, even when exposed to low doses. Therefore, treatment of endocrine-disrupting chemicals is a major concern for textile finishing wastewaters since they cannot be completely removed by widely applied conventional treatment technologies; but rather by using membrane filtration, advanced oxidation, and adsorption technologies. This study aims to investigate the performance of nano-filtration membranes in the post-treatment of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in textile finishing wastewaters. A total of 299 chemicals that were identified as endocrine-disrupting chemicals present and/or likely to be present in surface waters of Turkey were monitored in a textile finishing waste-water, and their removal by nanofiltration was investigated. The experimental results showed that 10 of the 17 compounds determined in textile industry treatment plant effluent, including benzo(g,h,i) perylene, fluorene, phenanthrene, mono-2-ethylhexylphthalate, dicyclohexylphthalate, diethyl-phthalate, di-n-butylphthalate, octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane, mirex (perchloropentacyclodecane) and saccharin were treated below their limit of detection values with nanofiltration. On the other hand, it was determined that nanofiltration was not efficient for compounds such as naphthalene, mono-n-butylphthalate, and di-sec-octylphthalate.