IIT Delhi researchers have shown that flexible textile electrodes made from recycled PET, carbon nanotubes and polyaniline can remove dyes from real textile effluent while generating usable electrical output, pointing to a lower-energy route for wastewater treatment.
Textile wastewater remains one of the sector’s hardest operating problems, especially in dyeing clusters where conventional treatment is costly, power-hungry and often difficult for smaller units to run consistently. A new line of work from IIT Delhi suggests textile-based electrodes could help shift that equation by combining effluent treatment with partial energy recovery.
The research centres on a flexible nonwoven polyester microfiber substrate made from recycled PET bottles and coated with carbon nanotubes and polyaniline. In a bioelectrochemical reactor, the material acts as an electrode on which electrogenic bacteria form biofilms, degrade pollutants and transfer electrons that can be harvested as electricity. The study highlights a microbial community dominated by Lysinibacillus, which appears to improve electron transfer and strengthen power output.
The reported performance is commercially relevant. In tests using real textile wastewater rather than synthetic lab solutions, the reactor removed more than 82% of harmful dyes and about 86% of chemical oxygen demand, a key measure of pollution load. The authors also argue that the system can offset part of its own operating energy demand and generate by-products such as malonic acid, which has industrial value.
The next question for mills is scale. Lab and pilot success do not automatically translate into plant economics, but the proposition is clear: if flexible textile electrodes can be manufactured cheaply and run reliably in industrial conditions, wastewater treatment could move from being a pure compliance cost toward a resource-recovery function.
