Making Dye

Cottage-scale industry makes very concentrated dye baths because they mix their washing right in there so the silk yarn does not absorb as much dye through the solution.  This is cheaper and better for them, but produces darker wastewater which has a larger impact on the environment.  Since I am working at a medium-scale industry we have to reproduce the dye bath.  Here is Babu measuring out the dye, Narasimhamurty cutting the soap, and Narayanaswamy dissolving the soda– all to be mixed together in 50 liters of water– I’ve also tried 100 liters and it seems to work the same.

Filter everything through sand

 

The sand is still leaving some residue, but it’s looking good.  There is currently a lot of sludge that is tainting the sand for future use, so we have started using cotton fabric as a primary filter.  Here you can see the before and after.  It’s not perfect, but much better than before!

Hydrogen Peroxide Added, Mixed, Left to React

 

The Hydrogen Peroxide has been added and mixed around.  Now just to wait, let everything settle and float out of solution and then it will be filtered through the sand.

So Much Dye!

 

So I’ve been placed at a medium-sized textile dyer because there is space and no language barrier.  Their wastewater is treated to allowable effluent limits.  Although I have tried my project’s technology on their wastewater, it is not much needed.  Since this is the case, they are helping me replicate the wastewater that cottage-scale textile dyers in rural areas dump.

Cleaning Sand

 

There are 2 types of sand available– the one on the left is River Sand, and the right is Ocean Beach Sand.  I bought the ocean sand at a construction materials market called Bamboo Market (because they use bamboo as scaffolding).  I made 2 sand filters so we decided to keep them separate.

 

Babu is helping me here get the metal box ready for the 1st trial.

Discussing Project Plans

 

Swan Silk Limited has agreed to let me take up space for 2 weeks and I am discussing with their Dye Manager, Prakash Mangalagatti, who has a degree in textile dyeing.  He’s an expert and curious about my project.  His director is interested in keeping ground water clean for future generations.  I am so grateful for their assistance!

Slow Sand Filtration

 

Sand filtration helps keep the sludge away from the decolorized water effluent.  The exit of the sand filter is made with a simple tap faucet, some screening to keep the sand in the barrel, and some epoxy– oh yeah and of course a barrel or bucket to be the vessel to hold the sand.

At KR Market

 

Alana Soehartono took these pictures while at KR Market finding what we needed to build a shallow rusty box to act as the iron catalyst to make the dye removal treatment process work. KR Market sells just about everything under the sun– so we had to find the METAL section and once we did that the excitement started.  You can imagine that a metal market is very industrial and has rarely, if ever, seen 2 outsiders who come looking for a big rusty piece of sheet metal to be made into a shallow box — and needs to be done that day!  But I knew we could do it– it’s India, anything possible.  We found the piece of metal for a reasonable price and we could tell they weren’t raising the price because we are outsiders.  Then I asked about folding it into a box with rivets.  They told us where to go.  The man behind me in this photo quoted me a very high price to make it by the next day.  I kept trying to bargain with him so we both could be happy.  When I told him we would bring our own metal (price stayed the same) he said ok and we never went back.  We went to get our metal and I told them that he was quoting a very large price for rivets– they said ‘Come, come’ and took us a couple alleys down.  The next man agreed to work on our project for an extremely fair price and to help us find a gas welder for a dollar rather than rivets that may leak.  We just had to wait until after lunch but it would be done today– ‘Chai?’  We agreed and had a seat.  Once the box was complete another man came to put it on the top of his auto rickshaw and carry it to our hostel.  I think I can’t even surprise the hostel managers anymore– they’ve seen me bring in large rain barrels, bags of sand, rusty boxes, dye, tools, etc.  A smile goes a long way.

Gas Welding corners to prevent leaking