Treatment of laundry wastewater by different processes: optimization and life cycle assessment

Abstract

Wastewater from industrial laundries is often difficult to treat because it usually presents high turbidity and chemical oxygen demand (COD). We studied several processes for the treatment of laundry wastewater which was provided by a hotel in the south of Gran Canaria, Spain. More specifically, we studied coagulation with iron (III) sulphate, Fenton, photo-Fenton and a biological treatment (using a biofilter, and a granular activated carbon, GAC, filtration). The coagulation and Fenton processes produced large amounts of sludge and could not meet the required standards for water reuse in Spain. The use of photo-Fenton and the BF resulted in complete turbidity removal and high COD removal. However, we found that the effluent from the BF did not meet the COD removal criteria for water reuse, and thus a GAC filtration post-treatment was employed to reduce COD to acceptable levels. The photo-Fenton process alone did meet the criteria for water reuse. The estimated cost to treat 1 m3 of wastewater was 6.72 € for photo-Fenton and 0.71 € for BF + GAC. The cost and life cycle assessment analyses that were also performed revealed that the acquisition of the necessary reagents is the main contribution to the overall economic and environmental costs for both options, and that the BF + GAC option is notably cheaper. Additionally, this option also causes much lower environmental impacts than photo-Fenton.