Coupling ultrafiltration with an activated carbon cloth for the treatment of highly coloured wastewaters : A techno‐economic study

Abstract This work investigates the coupling of a membrane technique, ultrafiltration, with a recent adsorbent, activated carbon cloth, for the treatment of industrial highly coloured wastewaters. A first experimental part shows the high treatment ability of this process for foutain‐pen inks effluents arising from the rinsing of vats in which inks were produced. Whereas ultrafiltration enables more than 97% of colour removal, COD and DOC are not completely retained and a residual value of 1,700 mg l−1 of DOC is obtained in the permeate. The second step of the process, activated carbon cloth, allows residual organic matter to be removed and a complete discolouring of the permeate. Adsorption capacities of COD and DOC are high, equal to 500 and 250 mg g−1 respectively. Furthermore, this adsorbent induces a complete removal of glycol compounds (acting as antifreeze) which were not retained by a nanofiltration technique. A second part is an evaluation of the economic feasibility of such an integrated process....