Effect-based monitoring demonstrates the efficiency of electrically-driven water treatment processes to remove salts and micropollutants from process water (EfectroH2O)
The project is part of the 2+2 programme from IGSTC call 2018. The funding of the Project is provided by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) and at the Indo-German Science and Technology Center IGSTC.
Research
This project aims to improve process water treatment in the textile industry to reduce harmful toxicological effects on the environment. In the process, process streams are to be recycled and resources recovered. The technology used for desalination and dye removal is capacitive deionization (CDI), which can be used especially for highly concentrated brines. In addition, advanced oxidation processes are used to remove micropollutants. The novel treatment technologies are being tested in a pilot plant in the textile industry in India after development in the laboratory. To verify water quality and treatment efficiency, effect-based methods (EBM) specifically adapted to textile wastewater are used to complement the chemical target analyses. The advantage of toxicological screening by EBM is that it allows a holistic statement on the toxicological effects of complex mixtures typical for process waters, including unknown oxidation by-products and synergistic effects. For this purpose, a variation of bioassays will be adapted to the specific requirements of textile wastewater and transferred from Germany to India as a test battery. The project includes the Sustainable Development Goal 6 of the United Nations Environment Programme to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for “all”, as recycling process water can reduce water consumption in water-scarce regions like India.