DESALINATION

ELSEVIER Desalination 149 (2002) 169-174

www.elsevier.com/locate/desal

Reuse of wastewater of the textile industry after its treatment

with a combination of physico-chemical treatment
and membrane technologies

A. Bes-Pih*, J.A. Mendoza-Rota, M.I. Alcaina-Miranda, A. Iborra-Clar,

M.I. Iborra-Clar
Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering, Universidad PolitPcnica of Valencia,
Camino de Vera s/n, 46071 Valencia, Spain
email: mbespia@iqn.upv.es

Received 1 February 2002; accepted 15 February 2002

Abstract

This work is focused on the treatment of a textile plant wastewater. The industry mainly manufactures socks,
stockings and panties, and the water is treated in order to be reused. The wastewater was characterized and jar-
tests experiments were carried out with different coagulants and flocculants, at different concentrations and pH
in order to obtain clarified water that can be treated by means of ultrafiltration (LJF) or nanofiltration (NF). The
combination of the physico-chemical treatment and the nanofiltration leads to a COD removal of almost 100%.

Keywords: Wastewater; Reuse; Textile industry; Membrane

-

1. Introduction difficult due to the operation problems and to

the costs. Biological treatment by activated
Due to the high water consumption in the sludge offers high efficiencies in COD removal,
textile industry it is essential to study its reuse. but does not eliminate completely the colour of
Many processes have been studied to treat the water and frequently operation problems
textile wastewaters [l-4]. However, their like bulking appear. The use of flotation instead
application in an industrial plant becomes of sedimentation to separate the treated
wastewater from the activated sludge solves
this problem, but it increases the depuration
*Corresponding author costs and it makes complicated the plant
Presented at the International Congress on Membranes and Membrane Processes (ICOM). Toulouse, France,
July 7-12. 2002

001 I-91 64/02/$- See front matter 0 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved
PII: SO0 1 1-9 164(02)00750-6
170 A. Bes-Pick et al. /Desalination 149 (2002) 169-l 74

operation. Chemical oxidation by ozone, or a 3. Material and methods

combination of UV-radiation and ozone and
H202, have great interest but their costs are still This study was carried out in three steps.
very high. The first step consisted of the characterization
The applications of membrane technologies of the wastewater samples. The analysed
in textile industries are not yet very common. parameters were the pH, conductivity,
Until now the reported applications are focused suspended solids, COD, temperature and
on the recovery of sizing agents from the turbidity. In the second step a physico-chemical
desizing effluents and on the recovery of the treatment was applied to wastewater in order to
indigo from the dyeing effluents by reduce COD and turbidity. Finally,
ultrafiltration [5,6]. ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF)
Jar-tests allow the evaluation of a treatment experiments were performed in different
to reduce dissolved, suspended, colloidal and laboratory plants to improve the quality of the
nonsettleable matter from water by chemical physico-chemical treated wastewater.
coagulation-flocculation followed by gravity
settling [7]. Thus, these tests are a valuable tool 3.1. Jar-tests
in wastewater treatment [8].
The use of membranes in combination with Physico-chemical experiments were carried
physico-chemicals processes is very interesting out in a multiple stirrer Jar-Test apparatus from
to produce water to be reused from the global SELECTA. Tests were performed using DK-
effluent of the industry. The factors that limit FER 20 from ACIDEKA S.A., FeC13 and
their application are the management of the Alr(SO& as coagulants and an anionic
membranes retentates streams due to their high flocculant from NALCO. The procedure
conductivities and the durability of the consisted in introducing 900 mL of the sample
membranes due to fouling and concentration in the jars, the coagulant was added and rapidly
polarisation [9, lo]. mixed (180 rpm) during 3 minutes. Then the
This work is focused in the evaluation of the speed was reduced (30 rpm) and the flocculant
final effluent quality. was introduced into the jars for an additional
time of 15 minutes. After that, the paddles were
withdrawn so that the particles could settle. The
2. Objectives influence of pH, coagulant and flocculant
concentrations were studied. The coagulant
The objectives of this work are the concentration range was varied between 50 and
following: 200 mg/L, and the flocculant concentration
- Evaluation of the physico-chemical between 0.5 and 2 mg/L. Finally, the pH values
treatment with jar-tests for textile were adjusted to 8.0, 8.5, 9.0 and 9.5. The pH
wastewater from a plant that mainly of the samples was changed by the addition of
manufactures socks, stockings and panties. HCl 0.1 N and NaOH 0.1 and 0.5 N.
- Optimisation of pH and coagulant and
flocculant concentration in the jar-tests. 3.2. Experiments with membranes
_ Determination of the water quality after
treating the wastewater with a combination Experiments with membranes were carried
of physico-chemical treatment and out using two different laboratory plants of
membrane technologies (ultrafiltration or ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF). The
nanofiltration). configuration of the plants were very similar.
 A. Bes-Pi6 et al. /Desalination 149 (2002) 169-I 74 171

7 VALVE 1 MANOMETER
6 FEED PUMP 2 REGULATION VALVE
9 SPEED CONTROL 3 PERMEATE STREAM
IO THERMOMETER 4 STIRRING
11 FILTER SYSTEM 5 FEED TANK
12 SECURITY VALVE 6 AUXILIARY TANK

Fig. 1. Scheme of the NF laboratory plant.

In Fig. 1 a scheme of the NF laboratory Table 3

plant can be observed. Wastewater characterization
The tested UF and NF membranes are
presented in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. Parameter Feedwater

T (“C) 18
Table 1 PH 7.50
Tested UF membranes Conductivity (mS/cm) 2.06
S.S. (mg/L) 82.6
COD (mg/L) 1640
Membrane reference Cut-off (kD)
Turbidity (NTU) 15.65

10 BIOMAX of MILLIPORE 5
IRIS 3065 of TECHSEP 40
IRIS 3028 of TECHSEP 100 NF module is plane with an effective
membrane area of 0.009 m2, the operating
conditions were 400 L/h of feed flow rate, 1
Table 2 MPa of transmembrane pressure and 20°C. The
Tested NF membranes operating conditions in UF process were feed
transmembrane pressure of 0.15 MPa, feed flow
Membrane NaCl MgS04 Permeability rate of 0.04 m3/h and temperature of 20°C.
reference R(%) R(%) (m’/m2d.MPa)
The operating time of the plants was 6
hours. Permeate fluxes J(L/m2h) and solute
Dow NF-45 50 95 0.0219
retentions R(%) were determined during the
Dow NF-70 80 95 0.2309
- experiments.
172 A. Bes-Pici et al. /Desalination 149 (2002) 169-l 74

4. Results
o COD (mg/L)
Table 3 shows the average values of the 1600 t Turbidity (NTU)
textile wastewater measured parameters. In
comparison with municipal wastewater, COD
and conductivity values are quite important and
have to be substantially lowered to produce
400
water with enough quality to be reused. These
values are typical for textile effluents.
In order to reuse the water in rinse
0 L
processes, it is necessary a negligible COD and
a conductivity lower than 1 mS/cm.
Fig. 2. Influence of wastewater pH on COD and
Fig. 2 shows the variation of COD and turbiditv of treated water using 200 mg/L of DK-FER
turbidity values of the clarified water after jar- 20. -
tests using DK-FER 20. As it can be seen, the
best result (51.5% COD removal and 68%
turbidity removal) was obtained at pH 9.5, but
as the increase in the removal efficiency was 1000 50
not significant at pH higher than 8.5, this value
- czz COD (mg/L)
was considered as the optimum. In alkaline 950 - + Turbidity (NTLI) 40

medium, the addition of DK-FER 20 drove to 3

3 900
2
30 g
the formation of positively charged metal E
* G
hydroxy complexes, that specifically adsorb 8 850 20 ^z
0 k
onto colloids, explaining the observed 2
800 Y 1 IO
behaviour.
In Fig. 3, it can be observed that increasing 750 T 0

the coagulant concentration, results in a 50 100 150 200

lowering of the COD and turbidity. Coagulant DK-FER coagulant (mg/L)

concentration higher than 200 mg/L hardly

improved the COD removal efficiency. Fig. 3. Influence of DK-FER concentration on COD
and turbidity of treated water.
Fig. 4 shows the effect of adding both 200
mg/L of DK-FER 20 and an anionic flocculant
(NALCO). The best results were achieved with
1 mg/L of flocculant. At higher flocculant
1600
concentrations, COD and turbidity increased. czx COD (mg/L)
This was due to the excess of flocculant, that 1260 -Turbidity (NTU)

remained as colloidal matter in water, s

% 960
contributing to the COD and turbidity of the .k.

clarified water. g 640

Thus, the experiments show that the

320
optimum operating conditions for the physico-
chemically treatment of the textile wastewater 0

are: pH = 8.5, Cnk_rr~ 20= 200 mg/L, &,lco = 1 0.5 1 I,5 2

NALCO floculant concentration (mg/L)
mg/L.
Experiments with the other coagulants did
Fig. 4. Influence of NALCO concentration on COD
not improve the efficiencies obtained with DK- and turbidity of treated water.
FER 20.
 A. Bes-Pid et al. /Desalination 149 (2002) 169-I 74 173

Figs. 5 and 6 show the evolution of the

permeate fluxes with the operating time in the
experiments carried out with UF and NF
membranes respectively. The membranes
feedwater was the clarified wastewater obtained
using the conditions described above.
The COD, conductivity and pH
40 I +- kD-100
.- kD-40
measurements were obtained for the last
2o i -.- kD-5 permeate samples.
0 I_ ~_. In Table 4, the results of the permeate
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
analysis can be observed. By means of UF, it
Time (minutes:
was not possible to decrease neither COD (due
to the molecular size of the dyestuffs) nor
Fig. 5. Permeate fluxes of UF membranes with the conductivity. However, with NF membranes the
operating time. COD removal was almost 100%. The
membrane retention measured as conductivity
removal reached the 85% for the NF-70
30 -
membrane.

5. Conclusions

The physico-chemical treatment applied to

‘5 I
this textile wastewater achieves a COD removal
~~-- NF-45
efficiency around 50%. The optimal values of
d- w-70
1oc - the parameters were: pH = 8.5, CDK_FER 20 = 200
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
mg/L, CNalco = 1 mg/L. These coagulant and
Time (minutes)
flocculant concentrations will be the initial
doses of chemicals for the optimisation of the
Fig. 6. Permeate fluxes of NF membranes with the process in an industrial scale. The quality of the
operating time. water is not still good enough to be reused in
the industry.

Table 4
Analysis of the feed and permeate streams in the different membrane experiments

Parameter FeedwaterUF m embranes NF membranes

100 kD 40 kD 5 kD NF-45 NF-70

COD (mg/L) 780 760 800 665 c2.5 c25

Conductivity (mS/cm) 3.4 3.36 3.35 3.30 1.1 0.50
PH 8.39 8.40 8.30 8.20 8.10 7.90
174 A. Bes-Pili et al. /Desalination 149 (2002) 169-I 74

None of the membranes used in UF tests 141 LA. Balcioglu and I. Arslan, Partial oxidation of
reduced significantly the COD of the physico- reactive dyestuffs and synthetic textile dye-bath
by the 0, and 03/H202 p recesses, Water Sci.
chemically treated water. However, the
Technol., 43(2) (2001) 221-228.
permeates of NF membranes can be reused in
[51 M. Crespi, Aplicaci6n de 10s Procesos de
the industry due to their low COD and Membrana en la Industria Textil in Apuntes de1
conductivity. Curso de Membranas y Medio Ambiente,
Prior to an industrial operation, the Universidad PolitCcnica de CataluAa, Barcelona,
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171 R. Marin, Jar-test en el tratamiento de aguas: una
valiosa herramienta. Tecnologia de1 agua, 181
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