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Abstract
A technical and economical analysis of the application of a membrane separation
technique for the purification of wastewaters aimed at their reuse is described. The investigation has been carried out by treating wastewaters of a pilot plant, reproducing on a smaller
scale a separation system based on ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis. Significant indications
for the exploitation of this approach on the fulling industrial scale were gained during the
work. The effluent from dyeing and finishing plants, after activated sludge oxidation, was
treated at an 800 l/h by means of sand filtration, followed by a separation in an ultrafiltration membrane module. The last separation step, reverse osmosis at 8 bar pressure, produced
a permeate (60% of the inlet flow) that, relying on the analytical screening performed, was
of much better quality with respect to process water presently in use. Therefore the permeate
produced can be re-used in all production steps, including the most demanding ones
concerning water quality such as dyeing with light coloration. A preliminary analysis of
investment and operating costs also gave encouraging indications of the economic feasibility
of the approach. 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Color removal; Reverse osmosis; Textile wastewaters; Ultrafiltration; Wastewater management; Water reuse
1. Introduction
Wet processes in the textile industries require water of very good quality
concerning the content of dyes, detergents, and suspended solids. Therefore, a
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +39-0574-634040; fax: + 39-0574-634045.
E-mail address: tecnotex@tecnotex.it (G. Ciardelli).
0921-3449/01/$ - see front matter 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 1 - 3 4 4 9 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 7 9 - 3
190
purification treatment to recycle water must have a better performance than for
simple discharge according to the limits imposed by legislation.
In order to meet legislative requirements, textile wastewaters are usually treated
in a chemical physical, or most commonly, in an activated sludge biochemical
plant. In order to have water that can be recycled in production cycles, especially
dyeing processes, water needs further treatments (Klose, 1993).
In a previous paper (Ciardelli and Ranieri, 1998), we reported the positive results
concerning the application of ozone treatment for the purification of textile
wastewater for re-use. This research background has been recently translated into
the realization of industrial plants for the full implementation of the technique. It
is interesting to see if this approach can be combined to the application of
membrane technology for a more efficient management and recycle of textile dyeing
and fulling plant water resources. The approach based on: (1) ozonization plant for
bioresistant pollutant oxidation; and (2) ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis membrane treatment is schematized in Fig. 1 and compared to the present management
of wastewater in the dyeing and finishing textile plant.
This paper is concerned with the results of the experimentation of ultrafiltration
and reverse osmosis techniques on dyeing and fulling textile wastewaters. The pilot
plant used was designed to reproduce an industrial treatment facility on a reduced
scale. Experiments were run in order to gain information on:
the decrease of several analytic parameters concerning water polluting content;
membrane hydraulic performance during experimentation; and
water recycle possibilities at the operating conditions which guarantee optimum
cost/benefit ratio.
The interest in membrane processing various industrial applications is increasing
thanks to the more recent technological innovations that render them reliable and
economically feasible in respect to other alternative systems. The design of the
effluent pre-treatment step (coagulation, sand filtration, disinfection) is crucial to
Fig. 1. Present (a) and proposed (b) wastewater management for a dyeing and finishing textile plant.
191
192
2.2. Membranes
A Trisep 8040-UE50-TXA membrane, of the spiral wound type (with fiberglass
outer wrap), was used for the ultrafiltration step. The membrane is 200 mm in
diameter and 1000 mm in length and has a filtrating surface of 23 m2. Characteristic
molecular weight cut-off is 100 kDa.
A module, with two Toray polyamide membranes of the spiral wound type
placed in series, was used for reverse osmosis. Each membrane is of 100 mm
diameter and 1000 mm length and has a filtrating surface of 54 m2.
193
3. Results
194
1
2
3
4
5
6
263
164
139
303
34
182
38
17
76
38
47
87
Table 2
Mean pH, conductivity and Redox potential values and % removal at the sampling positions
Sampling point
pH
Conductivity
(ms/cm)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7.8
7.9
8.0
8.1
6.3
8.1
3630
3610
3550
3610
35
6780
55
57
60
68
28
66
195
Table 3
Mean potassium, magnesium iron and sulphates concentrations at the sampling positions 1 and 5
Sampling point
Potassium
(mg/l)
Magnesium
(mg/l)
Iron
(mg/l)
Sulphates
(mg/l)
1
5
21.2
1.1
7.0
4.2
0.28
0.07
225
7
Chlorides
(mg/l)
725
42
removal of salts and organic content) to be reused in all processes of the textile
factories, even the most demanding concerning water quality such as dyeing yarns
or with light colors.
The reuse will drastically reduce the draining from wells furnishing water of
higher and more constant quality. Moreover, the draining from wells will face
problems with water shortages and possible taxes by local authority. It is also
known that the quality of water from wells tends to worsen with increases in time
and amount of water spilled (Smith and Wang, 1994).
In designing approaches based on membrane technologies, the management of
concentrates (process by-products) must be considered carefully. The approach
considered in the case study is to discharge both concentrates to a central
depuration plant treating mixed civilian and industrial wastes. According to our
knowledge, approaches based on the treatment of membrane concentrates for
recycling are still at a laboratory development stage (Balanosky et al., 1998).
Table 4
Mean absorbance values and % color removal at the sampling positions
Sampling point
Absorbance at 420 nm
1
2
3
4
5
6
0.083
0.075
0.068
0.101
0.002
0.113
6
16
95
196
Table 5
Operating and investment costs (evaluated in Euro) for ultrafiltration/reverse osmosis membrane
treatment of 1000 m3/day (250 000 m3/year) of textile wastewaters
Annual cost
(Euro)
% of total
Cost per m3
Class of cost
Total cost
(Euro)
300 000
30 000
21
0.20
120 000
50 000
25 000
40 000
34
17
28
0.33
0.17
0.27
420 000
145 000
100
0.97
are going to increase in the future. The duration of the membranes has been
estimated to be 3 years from results obtained. In fact, operating time for membranes of \ 1000 h can be considered sufficient to draw conclusions about a
reasonable life of the filtrating media (Linn et al., 1996; Dittrich et al., 1996).
4. Conclusions
Membrane processes show to be promising methods for purification aimed at
reuse of textile wastewaters, resulting in direct environmental and economic
benefits.
The sand filtration furnishes a satisfactory reduction of suspended solid content
and also a reduction of the organic substances content and a slight effect on color.
Further efficiency of the filtration could be obtained by adding a chemical coagulation step before filtration (Kurbiel and Rybicki, 1991; Crosse et al., 1996) that
would however cause an increase of treatment costs. The quality of the effluent
from ultrafiltration, as indicated by the S.D.I. values measured, is in accordance
with the required specification for feeding the reverse osmosis membranes. Moreover, the time trend of the ultrafiltration permeate mean flow is satisfactory for a
correct dimensioning of a real industrial plant. No variation in the hydraulic and
mechanical parameters of the reverse osmosis step was detected, indicating the
absence of membrane fouling.
The analytical parameters of the reverse osmosis permeate is of a high quality
( 95% reduction of salt content, practical absence of COD and color) and can be
therefore reused without problems since the quality of water presently used in
textile wet processes (usually drained from wells and in part softened) is usually
worse (conductivity of 800 ms/cm, absence of COD and color). Considering the
quality of the effluent produced, the considerable reduction of the need of water
drains and eliminating the need for water softening, the technique seems to be ready
for implementation on the industrial scale giving indication of technical and
economic feasibility (Masson and Deans, 1996).
197
Acknowledgements
Giorgio Palloni (Fildrop, Campi Bisenzio, Italy) is kindly acknowledged for
technical support, Elena Pini and Emiliano Romagnoli for collection and analytical
screening of samples, Regione Toscana for covering part of the costs of the
experimental campaign.
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