Abstract
The treatment of textile wastewater for reuse using an electrochemical oxidation step combined with a membrane filtration step is reported in this paper. The electrolytical process is a traditional one, which is easy to scale up and to apply in practice. This paper proposes a modification of the transfer-flow membrane (TFM) module with fibres welded in an arc-shape to enhance the mechanical properties of the fibres and to increase the specific membrane surface of TFM modules. The goal of this research was to study the performance of the arc-shaped TFM module to demonstrate these sequences of electrochemical oxidation coupled with membrane filtration processes and to develop a potential dyehouse wastewater treatment system for reuse. Two testing sequences of electrochemical oxidation and membrane filtration were studied in a sequential batch order. The results show clearly that fibres welded in an arc-shape can enhance the mechanical properties of the fibres effectively and that electrochemical oxidation and membrane filtration as sequential processes are feasible. Electrochemical oxidation has a high removal (89.8% efficiency) of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the wastewater while the membrane filter can almost totally remove the total suspended solids (TSS) (nearly 100% reduction) and turbidity (98.3% elimination) in it. Coincidentally, their advantages make up for their disadvantages. After these two steps, all the wastewater indices decrease to low levels; in particular, COD levels are reduced to 18.2 mg•l-1. The treated water can be reused in many production areas of the textile dyehouse factory. To take best advantage of this disposal system, the two processes should run in a rational sequence, with membrane filtration following the electrochemical oxidation process. With widely studied electrodes, this research offers a promising way for recycling textile wastewater. Key words: electrolysis, oxidation, membrane, dye, wastewater treatment Water SA Vol.31(1) 2005: 127-132
Highlights
Stringent effluent discharge permit limitations have been put into effect (Defazio and Lemley, 1999)
Electrochemical oxidation was performed in a cubic reactor and followed by a membrane filtration process
It is seen from the table that electrochemical oxidation can more efficiently remove colour than turbidity and SS
Summary
Stringent effluent discharge permit limitations have been put into effect (Defazio and Lemley, 1999). Many advanced treatments have been studied and electrochemical oxidation has been applied to many kinds of wastewater (Naumczyk et al, 1996; Simonsson, 1997). It is presented as an effective, selective, economical, and clean alternative for dealing with wastewaters bearing high loads of organic compounds, especially some bio-refractory organic pollutants. Such treatment produces total degradation of compounds to CO and H O or at least a considerable decrease in toxicity. Polcaro et al (1999) studied the performance of the Ti/PbO anode during electrolysis of 2-cholorophenol in 2 terms of faradic yield and fraction of toxic intermediates removed
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