The effects of sustainable water management practices on water consumption in different types of textile mills

The Textile Industry has an important role for export incomes and employment in the economical development subject of the countries. Türkiye is one of the leading textile suppliers with a share of 3.6% in the world textile trade. One of the main input of textile production is water. Due to the increase in the population and industrial expansion, the clean water sources decreases by the time. Thus, it is a crucial target to proceed the sustainable water consumption techniques especially in industries that consume high amounts of water, such as textile industries. In the subject, for the thesis, it is conducted and evaluated on the decrease techniques for process water in different 5 textile mills (T1-T2-T3-T4-T5). In addition to the current water consumption in these textile mills, the water consumption before and after the applications was compared and the efficiency of the sustainability practices was analyzed. In the study, different applications were carried out in 5 different mills, and it was determined that different effects occurred and water reduction efficiencies were different due to both the types of application and the different processes in the textile. As a result of the study, machinery and equipment were changed in 2 different periods in the T1 mill, and the amount of water used per product in total was reduced by 16.4 L/kg-fabric at the end of the two periods, resulting in a 24% reduction in water consumption. The maximum amount of water reduction was obtained in the T2 plant (21.57 L/kg-fabric), mainly due to the reverse osmosis water recovery operation applied in the plant. When viewed proportionally, the textile mill with the highest water reduction was determined as T5. At the T5 mill, 28% water reduction efficiency was achieved with 5 different sustainability practices at the end of 3 periods. The main reason for this is the correct application of the best available techniques in the mill and the investment in water-saving machinery and equipment. As a result of this study, it has been determined that water consumption in the textile industries can be reduced by 1-40% with the sustainability practices to be carried out. It has been concluded that maximum efficiency can be obtained, especially with water recovery and water-saving machinery and equipment investments.