TEXTILE-INDUSTRY WASTEWATERS TREATMENT

Effective water and waste management strategies enable us to decrease water consumption and pollution load of wastewaters. Typical examples of low-waste technologies are lanolin recovery in wool scouring, hydroxide recovery in cotton mercerizing, recovery of synthetic sizes and reuse of dye baths. Wastewaters are treated by a sequence of physical-chemical and biological processes. Traditionally, coagulation/flocculation (C/F) has been favored as the first treatment step followed by biological treatment as the second step. More recently a reverse sequence of treatment has been utilized in several cases with success. Novel technologies have been developed such as catalytic oxidation, decoloration by ozone, adsorption/desorption. Their practical use is, however, still rare. Joint treatment with municipal wastewaters has been favored wherever possible.