The textile industry is heavily water-dependent, dramatically impacting greenhouse gas emissions, water usage, and water quality. Each year, 500,000 tons of microfibers are released into oceans worldwide from washing synthetic materials, and nearly 35% of all microplastics released into the environment result from textile industry water usage. In addition, the textile industry is responsible for as much as 20% of global water pollution, and approximately 20,000 chemical products are used to produce clothes – many of which are carcinogenic. Obviously, these are concerns for any textile manufacturing producer.
India is the third largest textile producer globally and is growing rapidly. From 2020 to 2021, the Indian textile industry grew from 150 to 223 billion U.S. dollars, and in June 2022, the Minister of Textiles, Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs & Food and Public Distribution, Mr. Piyush Goyal, announced that the Indian Government was planning to build 75 textile hubs throughout India.
While this explosive growth is a positive sign for the industry, it has raised concerns about India’s water consumption and quality issues. According to The World Bank, water consumption and quality is a concern, as 50% or more of India’s districts have faced groundwater depletion or contamination, and USAID estimates that by 2030, India’s water demand will be twice the available supply,
In response to these issues, the Indian government has launched a variety of initiatives, including:
- The Mega Investment Textiles Parks (MITRA) project will develop world-class infrastructure with plug-and-play facilities.
- Project SU.RE. – Sustainable Resolution, which will help the textile industry achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and long-term environmental, social, and corporate governance goals.
In addition, as a business necessity, many Indian textile factories seek solutions that can help them recycle water resources more efficiently or monitor contamination to remediate water safely. Already, many factories are partnering with internationally recognized brands and organizations to save billions of liters of water. Others are seeking solutions to help them manage water usage without cutting into their bottom line while working towards net-zero water usage within their operations.
Textile factories use water extensively throughout their operations. For example, water baths use specific dyes, specialty chemicals, and finishing chemicals. Fabric preparation steps also need water for desizing, bleaching, scouring, and mercerizing. Each step or process requires water to balance with specific formulations of dyes or chemicals or the proper temperatures and composition. Maintaining the precise chemical or dye balance, for example, ensures standardized and replicable quality and results. And, much like chemical balance, water amounts needed for each task can vary widely within the industry, even as many organizations try to build more refined processes that require less water volume. However, no matter the setup, with the help of KETOS, manufacturers can reduce water usage, establish a 100% water recycle management plan, track water quality in real-time throughout the process and reduce chemical costs significantly, all while helping achieve ZLD goals.
Meena Sankaran, KETOS Founder and CEO, understands the necessity of ensuring water availability for communities firsthand. “KETOS was developed,” says Sankaran, “based on the need for the industry and my own experiences with water inequalities. I’m excited to see many in the textile industry in India thinking about water sustainability, their relationship to surrounding communities, and the role they can play in improving access to quality water for the people that live near their operations.”
Founded in 2015, the KETOS SHIELD and the KETOS Smart Water Intelligence Platform remotely monitors water quality in real-time, and ensures that influent, effluent, and process water used in industrial, municipal, and agricultural applications meet specific compliance, safety, and sustainability standards. The technology is the first in the Industry to allow companies to monitor water quality and usage with a simple, modular and interoperable hardware/software offering.
Currently deployed globally in five countries, KETOS not only monitors 30+ parameters, it can do so in real-time and at pre-programmed intervals so that water operators have the flexibility to test what they need to and as often as necessary. Results are lab-accurate and stored in the cloud for easy access to reports and up-to-date water quality and usage information. Threshold-based alerts can also be configured in the SHIELD solution and warn operators of potential compliance violations or other quality issues.
KETOS solution uniquely provides you the flexibility of water quality constituents in a data-as-a-service model with interchangeable contaminant detection unlike any other today that allows for companies to evolve with technology without the overhead of ramp-up and resources.
Water operators can remotely monitor various quality parameters at different parts of the manufacturing process – in real-time and use the insights for predictive maintenance of their large, expensive operational equipment. As a result, on-site operators and management have improved visibility and control over chemical dosing, water reuse, and overall water quality.
The return on investment is clear. Textile organizations don’t have to invest in large upfront capital expenditures – only to realize savings years down the line. With KETOS, the up-front investment is low, and savings can be realized in as little as a few weeks by:
- Achieve NetZero goals in water usage and reuse
- Reducing chemical and dye overuse
- Improving water efficiency and quality of inlet, effluent, produced, and recycled water
- Eliminating manual sampling, third-party testing, recording, and reporting
- Reducing costs per sample/test
- Avoiding compliance violations
- Predicting anomalies with process equipment
As India’s textile industry evolves towards water resiliency, finding flexible solutions that can offer cost savings while solving water inefficiency issues becomes paramount. KETOS is answering the call with a modular, remote monitoring solution designed to plug into existing operations to make real-time water quality achievable and affordable.