Cost-effective wastewater treatment and recycling in mini-plants using mass integration

Abstract.

This work illustrates the use of a mass integration approach to cost-effectively reduce wastewater treatment and discharge in mini-industrial plants. The approach focuses on the use of functional analysis, graphical analysis tools, and mathematical formulation to simplify the size of the problem and identify separation/interception scenarios. Sensitivity analysis is then used to compare all potential interception/separation scenarios identified by the analysis tools. The proposed approach is utilized to systematically optimize the cost of wastewater treatment in a fabric plant in Dubai, UAE. The solution involves the use of a settling tank (already exists in the process), reverse osmosis, and an evaporator to minimize the cost of wastewater treatment in the plant for the reduction of biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, total dissolved solids, and total suspended solids.