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Industrial Water Footprint: Case Study on Textile Industries

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Water Footprint

Abstract

The concept of water footprint (WF) is an important breakthrough in the evolution of methodologies, approaches, and indicators for measuring freshwater appropriation and assessing the wastewater discharge. Industries have become increasingly aware that they contribute directly and indirectly to water scarcity and pollution, and this constitutes a risk that they have to respond to. Industrial water footprint (IWF) methodology, which concentrates on the industrial production stages, can present a clear graphical view of freshwater consumption and impacts caused by wastewater discharge at both product and environment level. Most of the case studies reported have shown that Industrial Water Footprints (IWF) were caused by grey industrial water footprints. The grey water footprint refers to the volume of freshwater that is required to dilute the toxic pollutant concentration to meet the existing water quality standards. The present study reviews the case study of the textile industry and comprehends the internal water usage information such as the entire plant's water balance, detail of water usage, water yield for water conservation, and recycling measures. Considering a textile and dyeing plant as an example, the water footprints before and after a cleaner production audit were calculated.

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Abbreviations

WFP:

Total water footprint network (Mt/a)

WFPB:

The blue water footprint network (Mt/a)

WFBWE:

Amount of blue water evaporation rate (Mt/a)

WFBWI:

Amount of blue water incorporation rate (Mt/a)

WFLRF:

Water expressed in lost return flow rate (Mt/a)

WFPGR:

The grey water footprint network (Mt/a)

L[w]:

Quantity of pollutant k in the textile industrial network (Mt/a)

Cs[w]:

The concentration limit of contaminant or pollutant “w” (Mt/a) as specified per standards of pollutant discharge

Cn[w]:

The concentration of pollutant “w” present in natural water (Mt/a)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering, Chennai, 603110, India

    P. Senthil Kumar, S. M. Prasanth, S. Harish & M. Rishikesh

Authors
  1. P. Senthil Kumar
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  2. S. M. Prasanth
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  3. S. Harish
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  4. M. Rishikesh
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Correspondence to P. Senthil Kumar .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Head of Sustainability, SgT Group and API, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu

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Kumar, P.S., Prasanth, S.M., Harish, S., Rishikesh, M. (2021). Industrial Water Footprint: Case Study on Textile Industries. In: Muthu, S.S. (eds) Water Footprint. Environmental Footprints and Eco-design of Products and Processes. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4377-1_2

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