Team:UCL/Project/Manufacturing

In the textile industry, global annual production of dyestuff amounts over millions of tonnes. Azo dyes represent two thirds of this value, of which a majority find their way to wastewater effluent streams.

Our idea is to develop an integrated end-of-pipe method for detoxifying effluent streams of dye factories. Our goal is to achieve a two-stage regimen in sequence to ensure optimal conditions for the degradation of azo dyes within a batch bioreactor system. This would be an attractive and effective approach to dealing with azo dye contamination of the environment. As a financial incentive, we are also looking at maximise the profitability of various potential breakdown products. As a lucrative continuous-process alternative, we are investigating the application of microbial fuel cell technology to an aerobic bioreactor system, implementing simultaneous detoxification of azo dyes and generation of electricity.

Given the potential for scalability, this method would present various economic and environmental advantages for industries that generate large amounts of dyestuff. We envision that our novel approach could be taken further and represented as a modular bioprocess method for wastewater treatment for other toxic, normally recalcitrant chemicals.