Simulated cotton dye effluents treatment and reuse by nanofiltration

 

Presented at the conference on Desalination and the Environment. Sponsored by the European Desalination Society and Center for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), Sani Resort, Halkidiki, Greece, April 22–25, 2007.

 

S.A. Avlonitis (a), I. Poulios (b), D. Sotiriou (a), M. Pappas (a) and K. Moutesidis (a)

 

a. Laboratory of Quality Control and Operations Management, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technological Educational Institution (T.E.I.) of Halkidas, 34400 Psaxna EVIA, Greece

b. Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 54006, Greece

Received 17 December 2006; accepted 3 January 2007. Available online 19 January 2008.

 

 

 

The textile industry uses enormous quantities of water which in many cases are disposed to the environment with inadequate treatment. The effluent contains high salts and organics concentrations and they are therefore difficult to be treated. In this work the effluents from the cotton textile industry was treated by nanofiltration membrane in order to reduce the quantity of the disposed water and at the same time to reuse the treated water. A detailed investigation of the quality of the treated wastewater was performed at various operating and feed solution conditions even at extremely high recoveries and feed concentrations.

 

An excellent performance for the TRISEP (4040-XN45-TSF) nanofiltration membrane was found. This type of membranes can achieve complete decolorization of the cotton dye effluents and they reduce the total salt concentration more than 72%. They practically zero the organic matter content in the permeate water. These membranes can be used even at high recoveries and reasonably low pressures, producing high quality water, which can be re-used. On the other hand the quantity of the disposed wastewater, with high salt and dye concentration is less than 10% of the initial treated quantity, leading to a better management of the wastewater.

 

Keywords: Dye effluents treatment; Nanofiltration membranes; Wastewater reuse

 

 

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