Application of ozone and UV-radiation in textile wastewater treatment

Textile wastewater is known to be highly resistant to biodegradation under both natural and wastewater treatment plant conditions. However, ozonation and UV-irradiation can be used to ir increase the biodegradability of the b iologically resistant compounds. In our studies, two different real textile wastewaters were taken from a knitting company located in Lodz, Poland. Dy eing wastes were treated by the following methods: ozonation, UV-irradiatio n, and simultaneous ozonation and UV-irradiation. The effluents, before and after the treatment, were analysed according to the requirements of Polish standards, which included pH, colour threshold COD and BOD, anionic surfac tants, and soluble substances. The aim of these experiments was to compare the yield of impurity destruction in the effluents treated. The best result s were obtained in the case of simultaneous use of ozonation and UV-irradia tion, which gave a positive synergetic effect. The results obtained suggest that simultaneous ozonation and UV-irradiation can be applied successfully on technological scale.