Review A critical review on textile wastewater treatments: Possible approaches Chandrakant R. Holkar, Ananda J. Jadhav, Dipak V. Pinjari * , Naresh M. Mahamuni, Aniruddha B. Pandit Chemical Engineering Department, Institute of Chemical Technology Mumbai, N. P. Road, Matunga (E), Mumbai, 400019, India article info Article history: Received 3 March 2016 Received in revised form 14 July 2016 Accepted 28 July 2016 Keywords: Textile wastewater Cavitation Ozone H 2 O 2 Bacteria Microbial fuel cell Cost analysis abstract Waste water is a major environmental impediment for the growth of the textile industry besides the other minor issues like solid waste and resource waste management. Textile industry uses many kinds of synthetic dyes and discharge large amounts of highly colored wastewater as the uptake of these dyes by fabrics is very poor. This highly colored textile wastewater severely affects photosynthetic function in plant. It also has an impact on aquatic life due to low light penetration and oxygen consumption. It may also be lethal to certain forms of marine life due to the occurrence of component metals and chlorine present in the synthetic dyes. So, this textile wastewater must be treated before their discharge. In this article, different treatment methods to treat the textile wastewater have been presented along with cost per unit volume of treated water. Treatment methods discussed in this paper involve oxidation methods (cavitation, photocatalytic oxidation, ozone, H 2 O 2 , fentons process), physical methods (adsorption and filtration), biological methods (fungi, algae, bacteria, microbial fuel cell). This review article will also recommend the possible remedial measures to treat different types of effluent generated from each textile operation. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 352 2. Textile operations ............................................................. .................................................... 352 2.1. Sizing and desizing .......................................................................................................... 352 2.2. Bleaching ............................................................. ..................................................... 352 2.3. Mercerization ........................................................... ................................................... 352 2.4. Dyeing and printing ......................................................................................................... 353 2.5. Finishing .............................................................. ..................................................... 353 3. The textile industry standards for water pollutants .................................................................................... 353 4. Treatment processes for textile wastewater ........................................................................................... 353 4.1. Physical methods ............................................................................................................ 354 4.2. Oxidation methods .......................................................................................................... 355 4.3. Biological methods .......................................................................................................... 356 4.3.1. Fungal cultures for degradation of dyes .................................................................................. 357 4.3.2. Algae for degradation dyes ............................................................................................ 357 4.3.3. Pure culture and mixed culture for degradation of dyes ................................... ............................... 358 4.3.4. Microbial fuel cell: sustainable technology for textile wastewater treatment ................................................. 358 5. Factors affecting bacterial degradation ............................................................................................... 359 6. Biological and physicochemical combination processes ................................................................................ 359 7. Cost of textile wastewater treatment techniques ...................................................................................... 362 * Corresponding author. E-mail address: dv.pinjari@ictmumbai.edu.in (D.V. Pinjari). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Environmental Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvman http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.07.090 0301-4797/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Environmental Management 182 (2016) 351e366