Cost Effective Treatment of Textile Mill Effluents by Water Reuse

The treatment results of a full scale plant treating the effluents from an integrated woolen textile industry have been presented. Effluents from the wool finishing process were recirculated after chemical treatment followed by rapid sand filtration. This practice provides a reduction of about one million US Dollars per year in the treatment cost, which corresponds to a pay back period of one year for the whole investment. Lanolin, which is recovered from the acid-cracking sludges, is a valuable by-product resulting in an extra reduction in the treatment cost.