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Project Wastewater Recycling and Reuse by Solar-Catalytic Treatment: A Pilot Study in the Textile Industry

- The use of water in North Africa increased during the last years extremely due to the rising population and industrial activities. This caused a strong decrease of the natural water resources and an increasing salination and pollution of the tap water.

- The textile industry is very typical for the North African region and, therefore, the water consumption and the environmental pollution caused by this industry is quite large. Most of these factories have or will have a pretreatment plant.
- However, the water quality of the effluents is not sufficient for recycling and the effluents contain recalcitrant compounds.

Project number IC 18-CT-1998-0267
Subject(s) no translation available
Acronym Solar-Catalytic_Treatment
Geographical coverage France, Germany, Algeria, Tunisia
Budget (in €) n/a
Programme INCO MED (FP4)
Objectives - The solar catalytic wastewater treatment is a process which uses sun light for the oxidation of pollutants. Posttreatment by the solar-catalytic process in sun-rich countries is an economically feasible possibility to reduce wastewater compounds like it has been shown in a recent EC Avicenne project.

- Pretreatment plants of two factories in Algeria and Tunisia are optimized and part of the effluents as well as process streams in the factories will be treated by photocatalysis in pilot plants with a maximum flow rate of 1 m3/h. The influence of the type of process stream and pretreatment on the photocatalytic process will be investigated.

- The Flow Film Reactor (FFR) is used in the pilot plants because the design is simple and the performance is high as demonstrated in a previous Avicenne project with similar wastewater. Comparison of modified catalysts with synthetic and textile wastewater and tests with different support materials will be carried out with the goal to reduce the necessary surface area and to minimize the investment costs.
Results - Positive Effects on the environment and the water resources will be realized. Wastewater treatment and recycling does not exist in the Third Mediterranean Countries. This project will introduce a new and more efficient adapted technology of wastewater treatment and reuse to sun-rich arid countries.
 
-The interest of managers, politicians and the public in this technology will be aroused through the use of a pilot scale plant and the use of real wastewater. Long term water savings due to recycling is expected.

- The pilot study will provide information on the long term stability, the safety of operation and the design of solar catalytic wastewater treatment. Additionally, possibilities for the reuse of water in the textile industry in Developing Countries will be investigated.
- The final business management analysis will assess the applicability of the solar catalytic wastewater treatment and recycling.
Period [01/10/1998 - 30/09/2001]

Partners

  • TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF CLAUSTHAL
    Coordinator acts as project coordinator
    Type
    Country Germany
    Contact VOGELPOHL Alfons,
    Position:
    Phone/fax: +49-532-3722355 , +49-532-3723570
    Email: vogel@itv.tu-clausthal.de
  • Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique
    Laboratoire de Eau et Environnement
    Type
    Country Tunisia
    Contact Mr. Ahmed Ghrabi,
    Position:
    Phone/fax: ++216 1 410 740, ++216 1 410 740
    Email: ahmed.ghrabi@inrst.rnrt.tn
  • Institut Algerien du Petrole de Boumerdes
    Type
    Country Algeria
    Contact Mr. Abdenour Si-salah,
    Position:
    Phone/fax: +213. 1. 818388, +213. 1. 818388
    Email: sisalah@hotmail.com
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