1. Water Matters COLORS EVERY WHERE PAPER INDUSTRIES TEXTILE INDUSTRIES
CHEMICALS
ENERGY
Color is primarily an aesthetic pollutant but some dye classes do not degrade rapidly.
Azo and anthraquinone are types widely used in the paper and textile industries.
133 billion gallons of water consumed in the textile industry.
30 % reactive dye discharged.
Residual chemicals and energy are in spent baths and white water.
Pass through regulations in the books at federal and state levels but rarely enforced.
REGULATIONS/LIMITS MAY BE ENFORCED

2. TAML® by Carnegie Mellon University
reactive and very selective
water soluble, non-toxic,
stable between pH 1 – 13
low dosage, ppm
Fe-TetraAmido Macrocyclic Ligand1
Resistant to oxidative degradation and to hydrolysis
Chemical structure can be tuned to have specific selectivity
The exact nature of the reactive intermediates is being investigated
Looking for easy simple and economic process or technology to reduce or remove colors:
Physical
Electrochemical
Biological
Chemical
TAML is a catalyst/activator synthesized from basic elements – C, H, O, N, Fe – to work with natural hydrogen peroxide to oxidize dyes to simpler colorless molecules.
1. T. J. Collins, Acc. Chem. Res. 35: (2002)

3. Intracron Black VS-B 596 nm, TAML 20 uL, 60oC, pH 9
This a result of lab scale work on a dye used by a textile mill in MA.
The color was removed to the point that the solution could be used .
This kind of result was not obtained for all dyes tested.
For most dyes, it should be possible to tweak the parameters – temperature, concentrations of hydrogen peroxide and TAML® , reaction time, etc. to obtain residual solutions that can be recycled for some processes in the mills.
596 nm, TAML 20 uL, 60oC, pH 9

4. Portable Module
With our partners, we have built and tested a module, presently located at ATMC that can be moved to any facility for on-site trials

5. Work in Progress OTA: On site/field trials
Analyses of lab, pilot and on site results
Review designs & parameters of pilot unit
ATMC: Tests on spent dye bath solutions
Pilot-scale decolorization system
UMD: Decomposition pathways, end- & by-products, reaction mechanisms
CMU: Design & synthesize new activators
We want to acknowledge our partners and state that there is still a lot of work to do.