These results could only be achieved by TEAM work including in-depth assessment and on site trials. Reducing the fresh ground water consumption results in an equivalent reduction of the wastewater discharge volumes and loads after treatment except for salinity which needs to be reduced upstream. Hence our main focus was upstream in the production and utilities. The 19 BD textile industries (16 integrated plants incl. dyeing and finishing + 3 denim finishing and washing plants) consumed 88 - 421 liter/kg of finished fabric. The benchmark water consumption would be about 50 l/kg for integrated plants and 25 l/kg for denim washing plants. In most cases about 50% water reduction was quickly achieved by boosting wet processing efficiency including first time right performance thanks to the invaluable contributions of an international wet processing expert, aside from cutting various spills. Further reductions are achieved by water recycling and recovery of energy and chemicals starting with hot cooling water and last rinses up to brine from dyebaths after removing the fibers and color. Finally on-site trials were performed as to upgrade the effluent treatment plants to include sustainable advanced biological treatment and color removal without the usual (electro-)coagulation and flocculation producing chemical waste sludge. More about this project can be found on LinkedIn in the group Water Technologies topic "Any new technology for water efficiency in Textile Industry?".
Published by Bruno Peeters, managing director at Model Engineering
These results could only be achieved by TEAM work including in-depth assessment and on site trials. Reducing the fresh ground water consumption results in an equivalent reduction of the wastewater discharge volumes and loads after treatment except for salinity which needs to be reduced upstream. Hence our main focus was upstream in the production and utilities. The 19 BD textile industries (16 integrated plants incl. dyeing and finishing + 3 denim finishing and washing plants) consumed 88 - 421 liter/kg of finished fabric. The benchmark water consumption would be about 50 l/kg for integrated plants and 25 l/kg for denim washing plants. In most cases about 50% water reduction was quickly achieved by boosting wet processing efficiency including first time right performance thanks to the invaluable contributions of an international wet processing expert, aside from cutting various spills. Further reductions are achieved by water recycling and recovery of energy and chemicals starting with hot cooling water and last rinses up to brine from dyebaths after removing the fibers and color. Finally on-site trials were performed as to upgrade the effluent treatment plants to include sustainable advanced biological treatment and color removal without the usual (electro-)coagulation and flocculation producing chemical waste sludge. More about this project can be found on LinkedIn in the group Water Technologies topic "Any new technology for water efficiency in Textile Industry?".