The objectives of TOWEF0 Project

Objectives

An appropriate number of textile silk, synthetic fibres and cotton finishing industries, representative of the European finishing textile production, will be chosen.

In each industry a proper water (including contaminant, from now defined as “characteristics”) and energy balance will be evaluated.

The water produced in each production step will be metered and characterised for direct re-use.

Different biological and/or physical/chemical pre-treatment of a given process waste water will be tested for re-use or recycling in the textile finishing processes or for improving biodegradability and reducing toxicity.

A protocol will be developed within the concept of Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) to determine the optimum composition, in terms of treatability and reusability, of the process waste water streams of the textile finishing industry. This protocol will be integrated into the methodology of the Water Pinch Technology.

Different water re-use and saving strategies on the separate incoming streams will be evaluated, using bench scale reactors and/or simulation studies, for their effects on the final WWTP effluent characteristics.

Each strategy and/or techniqu, at company level, will be evaluated applying Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) because life cycle can avoid to spread pollution on the other environmental compartments (air, soil) and allow to fulfil the multicriteria optimisation objectives.

An LCA software tool will be implemented to enable the application of the above methodology. The tool will allow textile designers to select from GEPs with a view to generating the lowest environmental impacts. The tool will be designed for the use of decision-makers and will be user-friendly.

A regulatory policy will be implemented based on the overall environmental impact to better drive the multicriteria optimisation objectives. Some tariff structures to fulfil the project objectives, which can also include “externalities” will be elaborated during the project.

Description of the work

The Directive CE 61/96 “Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control” (IPPC) is going to be implemented in all European countries. Best Available Techniques (BAT) will be defined for several industrial processes, with the objective to eliminate or reduce emissions. As far as the textile industries are concerned, it is very likely that most of BATs will implement closed-loop options for industrial water usage. The driver for this, at least in some Mediterranean countries, is also a scarcity of water resources which typically attracts increased water charges.

Some textile companies have already started in cutting down their water consumption by re-using water from the prewashing installation in the secondary washing installation, or by recirculating the first washing water several times until (visually) the quality of the water is estimated too low to continue.

The growing application of water re-use strategies will surely cause drastic changes in waste water composition (quantity reduction, increase in concentration).

A variable composition of waste water is therefore expected, according to the application of BAT and the simultaneous reduction of water consumption for economical and scarcity reasons.

This aspect will affect the performances of the already existing waste water treatment plants or, for the new treatment plants, the plant design and operation.

The project objective is to establish a multicriteria integrated and coherent implementation of Good Environmental Practices (GEP) and, therefore, water saving strategies in textile finishing processes, taking into account the treatment of industrial waste water effluent (Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive 91/271 EEC) and the impact of the final discharge to the water recipient bodies (Water Framework Directive COM (98)).

This multicriteria integrated approach, aimed to promote the efficient use of resources within textile finishing industries characterised by large use of water, will be implemented to optimise the overall impact on the environment.

The integrated multicriteria methodology coupled with an effective regulatory policy will contribute to the improvement of competitiveness of textile finishing industries and this might contribute to the attenuation of the negative effects of the globalisation on the textile finishing industries in Europe.

Expected impacts

Best Available Techniques (BAT) will be defined for textile processes, with the objective to eliminate or reduce emissions. In this meaning, the production processes can not be taken any longer as invariable factors, measures considering the reduction of emissions have to be considered of the same importance of the ones needed to increase quality and productivity. In theory this is very well-known but introduction into practice is difficult and very work-intensive. In addition the integrated approach requires more co-operation, more communication between the operators of the textile chain and the outstanding institutions.

This project will set up a multicriteria integrated approach, aimed to promote the efficient use of resources within textile finishing industries characterised by large use of water, will be implemented to optimise the overall impact on the environment. The decision-making supporting tool (based on the integration of LCA, Pinch technology and Waste Design assessment), that will be implemented with the project, will be intended for even non- expert users. The tool will enable user-friendly assessment of various alternative recycling options for a given textile process.

The regulatory policy, based on the overall environmental impact to better drive the integrated multicriteria optimisation objectives, will have the aim to evaluate, by a theoretical and practical point of view, the economical sustainability of new tariff structures in textile-industrial water usage and discharge, in order to guarantee the protection of the environment and, at the same time, the competitiveness of the European textile industries.

Considering that, the project objective is to establish a multicriteria integrated and coherent implementation of good environmental practices (GEP) in textile finishing processes, with particular regard to the treatment of industrial waste water effluent (Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive 91/271 EEC) and the impact of the final discharge to the water recipient bodies (Water Framework Directive COM (98)), this will contribute to the implementation and evolution of the EU policies. Considering the pan-European character of this contribution, it is worth that the project will be carried out at European level.