The physico-chemical treatment of laundry waste water

Abstract

Waste water from the washing of clothes is treated with aluminium sulphate + acrylamide to achieve coagulation/ flocculation. The analytical data obtained in a jar-test using the FTU as the control parameter demonstrate the efficacy of the process, as reductions in the FTU approaching 100% and elimination rates of 80% in the BOD5, 80% in detergents and 85% in the COD were achieved. These results show that coagulation and flocculation are sufficient to treat laundry waste water, even though it contains a high pollutant load, since both organic and inorganic pollutants can be significantly reduced by such operations.