The Indian Institute of Technology has developed an innovative green technology — air nano-bubble — that can reduce the use of water by up to 90 percent in the textile industry. Nearly 200 liters of water is required to process 1 kg of cotton fabric.
The laboratory reports suggest the air nano bubble dispersed in water could reduce water consumption and chemical dosage by 90-95 percent.
This ultimately also saves 90 percent of the energy consumption, said Dr. Neelkanth Nirmalkar, who has developed the technology.
IIT Ropar director Rajeev Ahuja said, “eco-friendly technology has been developed at the IIT, Ropar, under a startup which is also working towards cleaning the environment and is expanding in developing new applications ranging from water treatment to healthcare.”
In the textile industry, water is used in many steps, including for dyeing, finishing chemicals in the textile substrates, de-sizing (the process of removal of sizing material from yarn), scouring, bleaching, and mercerizing (chemical treatment of fabric to enhance affinity towards dye).
At the same time, the textile industry also produces the highest volume of wastewater.
Dr. Nirmalkar said that the technology was based on nano bubbles of air and ozone.
