Treatment of industrial textile wastewater by means of forward osmosis aiming to recover dyes and clean water
Carmen M. Sánchez-Arévalo,
Laura García-Suarez,
Maria Salud Camilleri-Rumbau,
Jorg Vogel,
Silvia Álvarez-Blanco,
Beatriz Cuartas-Uribe,
M. Cinta Vincent-Vela
Affiliations
Carmen M. Sánchez-Arévalo
Research Institute for Industrial, Radiophysical and Environmental Safety (ISIRYM), Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera, s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain; Corresponding author.
Research Institute for Industrial, Radiophysical and Environmental Safety (ISIRYM), Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera, s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain; Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain
Beatriz Cuartas-Uribe
Research Institute for Industrial, Radiophysical and Environmental Safety (ISIRYM), Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera, s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain; Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain
M. Cinta Vincent-Vela
Research Institute for Industrial, Radiophysical and Environmental Safety (ISIRYM), Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera, s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain; Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain
The textile industry is one of the largest water consumers, and, as a result of its activity, it generates tons of wastewater. In this research, forward osmosis has been employed to tackle the critical need of treating textile wastewater. The HFFO2 membrane (Aquaporin) was used to process large volumes of real cotton dyeing wastewater, wool dyeing wastewater, and several types of textile end-of-pipe wastewater. In all cases, the permeate flux was between 6 and 8 L·h− 1 m− 2 during the major part of the process. The recovery of clean water from each wastewater surpassed 90 %, whereas the membrane rejected more than 87 % of total dissolved solids. As a result, textile dyes were concentrated on the feed side of the membrane, which enables their recovery and potential reutilization in a subsequent dying process, along with the reclaimed water. The HFFO2 membrane was efficiently cleaned by a backwash process, restoring the initial water flux. These results indicate the suitability of forward osmosis to reuse dyes and water from textile wastewater, reducing the environmental impact of this industry and favoring its sustainability.
