EfectroH2O: Development and evaluation of a novel treatment technology for high-brine industrial wastewater

• Published in: The Science of the total environment 2023-07, Vol.883, p.163479-163479, Article 163479
• Main Authors: Gossen, Mira, Govindarajan, Dhivakar, John, Anju Anna, Hussain, Sajid, Padligur, Maria, Linnartz, Christian, Mohseni, Mojtaba, Stüwe, Lucas, Urban, Viktoria, Crawford, Sarah, Schiwy, Sabrina, Wessling, Matthias, Nambi, Indumathi M., Hollert, Henner
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: biochemical oxygen demand; chemical oxygen demand; deionization; Desalination; Ecotoxicology; environment; fabrics; freshwater; human health; India; industrial wastewater; liquids; Membrane technology; oxidation; salt concentration; textile mill effluents; toxicity; wastewater treatment; Water pollution; water quality; Water treatment; World Bank
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163479

Textile production is one of the main sources of freshwater consumption by industries worldwide. In addition, according to the world bank, 20 % of the wastewater generated globally is caused by textile wet-processing. Textile wet-processing includes the processes in textile production where garments are dyed or given the final functions like water-repellency. Several thousand chemicals were used in this process, some of which are highly toxic. Discharging untreated or insufficiently treated wastewater in water bodies results in high pollution levels, severely impacting the environment and human health. Especially in textile-producing countries like India, environmental pollution and water consumption from textile wet-processing have severe impacts. Next to the high volume of chemicals used in textile production, the high salt concentration in textile wastewater also poses a challenge and is critical for freshwater systems. Moreover, textile wastewater is one of the most difficult to treat wastewater. Currently, used treatment technologies do not meet the requirements to treat textile wastewater. Therefore, the further development of efficient treatment technologies for textile wastewater is critically important. Hence, in the interdisciplinary project, effect-based monitoring demonstrates the efficiency of electrically-driven water treatment processes to remove salts and micropollutants from process water (EfectroH2O), a low-energy Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) textile wastewater treatment technology is being developed consisting of a combination of capacitive deionization (CDI) and advanced oxidation processes (AOP). In addition to treatment technology development, methods for evaluating the efficiency of treatment technologies also need to be improved. Currently, mainly physicochemical parameters such as pH, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) are tested worldwide to check water quality. However, these methods are insufficient to make a statement about the toxic potential of such complex mixtures as textile wastewater. Therefore, also next to chemical analyses, effect-based methods (EBM) are used to verify the treated wastewater. [Display omitted] •The project heads at improving the wastewater treatment in textile industries.•The synergistic combination of CDI and AOP would eliminate dyes and recover salts.•Findings of pilot in textile industry will enable transferring to other industries.•EBM will assess water quality, treatme