Recovery of Sodium Sulfate from Farm Dyainage Salt and Using It in Directive Dyeing of Cotton

Agricultural drainage salt generated during irrigation of crops in San Joaquin Valley, California exceeds 600,000 tons annually and cumulates in the field in a rapid rate. As a result, the waste is taking out more farmlands for salt storage and disposal, imposing serious concerns to environment and local agricultural industry. in searching for a potential solution to reduce or eliminate the waste, this research explored feasibility of producing a value-added product, sodium sulfate, from the waste and utilizing the product in textile dyeing. The result indicated that sodium sulfate could be produced the salt and could be purified by a recrystalization method in a temperature range within the highest and lowest daily temperatures in summer in the valley. Re recovered sodium sulfate samples, with purifies ranging from 67% to 99.91, were compard with commercially available sodium sulfate in directive dyeing of cotton fabrics. Direct Yellow 27 and direct Blue 1 had similar exhaustions among Na₂So₄Ⅰ, Na₂So₄Ⅱ, Na₂So₄Ⅲ and V which had similar ratios of sodium sulfate and sodium chloride in recovered salts. Na₂So₄Ⅳ had high exhaustion despite low ratios of sodium sulfate and sodium chloride. In direct Red 80, exhaustion depends more on the ratios of sodium sulfate and sodium chloride than sodium chloride. Na₂SO₄Ⅳ and Na₂SO₄V with high ratios of sodium chloride had more exhaustion than Na₂So₄and Na₂So₄Ⅲ with low ratios of sodium chloride. Generally, directive dyeing using recovered salts from farm drainage has similar or more excellent exhaustion than directive dyeing using commercial sodium sulfate.