Closing the water cycle for industrial laundries: An operational performance and techno-economic evaluation of a full-scale membrane bioreactor system

Charalambos Nicolaidis and Ioannis Vyrides

Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 2014, vol. 92, issue C, 128-135

Abstract: To reduce the consumption of freshwater in the laundry industry, a new trend of closing the water cycle has resulted in the reuse/recycling of water. In this study, the performance of a full-scale submerged aerobic membrane bioreactor (9m3) used to treat/reuse industrial laundry wastewater was examined over a period of 288 days. The turbidity and total solids (TS) were reduced by 99%, and the chemical oxygen demand (COD) effluent removal efficiencies were between 70% and 99%. The levels of COD removed by the membrane were significantly greater than the levels of biodegraded COD. This enabled the bioreactor to sustain COD levels that were below 100mg/L, even during periods of low wastewater biodegradation due to bioreactor sludge. An economic evaluation of the membrane bioreactor (MBR) system showed a savings of 1.13€ per 1m3 of water. The payback period for this system is approximately 6 years. The energy and maintenance costs represent only 5% of the total cost of the MBR system.

Keywords: Laundry wastewater; Submerged membrane bioreactor; Recycling; Biodegradation; Membrane retention; Payback (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:recore:v:92:y:2014:i:c:p:128-135

DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2014.09.001

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