Treatment of synthetic dye baths by Fenton processes: evaluation of their environmental footprint through life cycle assessment

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international Vol. 26; no. 5; pp. 4300 - 4311
• Main Authors: Grisales, Claudia Mildred, Salazar, Luis Miguel, Garcia, Dorian Prato
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.02.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Advanced Oxidation Technologies: State-of-the-Art in Ibero-American Countries; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Baths; Carbon dioxide; Carbon Footprint; Coloring Agents - chemistry; Costs; Dyeing; Dyes; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecological footprint; Economics; Ecotoxicology; Efficiency; Effluents; Electricity consumption; Energy consumption; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental impact; Environmental performance; Environmental science; Hydrogen Peroxide - chemistry; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; Iron - chemistry; Life cycle analysis; Life cycle assessment; Life cycle engineering; Life cycles; Organic chemistry; Organic constituents; Pollutants; Reactors; Reagents; Sodium acetate; Sodium carbonate; Sodium chloride; Sodium hydroxide; Sulfuric acid; Textile Industry; Textile industry wastes; Textile industry wastewaters; Waste Disposal, Fluid - methods; Waste Water - chemistry; Waste Water Technology; Wastewater; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Life cycle assessment; Decolorization; Fenton; Cost analysis; Dye baths; Azo
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-018-2757-9

Inorganic and organic constituents present in textile effluents have a noticeable effect on the performance of Fenton processes. However, studies have been focused on simple wastewater matrices that do not offer enough information to stakeholders to evaluate their real potential in large-scale facilities. Chemical auxiliaries, commonly present in textile wastewaters (NaCl = 30 g/L, Na 2 CO 3  = 5 g/L, and CH 3 COONa = 1 g/L), affect both the economic and environmental performance of the process because they increase the treatment time (from 0.5 to 24 h) and the consumption of H 2 SO 4 (657%) and NaOH (148%) during conditioning steps. The life cycle assessment (LCA) performed with the IPCC-2013 method revealed that dyeing auxiliaries increase from 1.06 to 3.73 (252%) the emissions of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2 -Eqv/m 3 ). Electricity consumption can be considered an environmental hotspot because it represents 60% of the carbon footprint of the Fenton process. Also, the presence of auxiliaries is critical for the process because it results in the increase of the relative impact (between 50 and 80%) in all environmental categories considered by the ReCiPe-2008 method. Chemical auxiliaries increased the costs of the treatment process in 178% (US$2.22/m 3 ) due to the higher energy consumption and the additional reagent requirements. It is worthwhile mentioning that the technical simplicity of the Fenton process and its low economic and environmental costs turn this process into an attractive alternative for the treatment of textile effluents in emerging economies.