TenCate Protective Fabrics
Salts, dyes and acid removal from textile production wastewater
TenCate Advanced Textiles BV develops and produces protective and safety fabrics for industrial garments, emergency response (e.g. fire fighters) and military garments.
Wastewater at the plant in the Dutch town of Nijverdal contains - among others - sizing agents, salts, dyes and finishing products. Due to the high level of COD and colour of the water, discharging the wastewater into the sewer system was a problem. Searching for a solution in the 1990’s, TenCate found aerobic and physical/chemical technologies too expensive and the quality of the treated effluent not good enough. High production of aerobic sludge and chemical consumption proved to be the biggest drawbacks.
Paques tested the combination of anaerobic and aerobic treatment for six months at a pilot plant. The results were very good and in 1999 a full-scale anaerobic BIOPAQ®IC bioreactor was installed and an activated sludge system (with tilted plate separators). It removed nearly 90% of COD as well as most of the colour and toxicity. In 2007 TenCate expanded the BIOPAQ®IC capacity, installed CIRCOX® for aerobic post-treatment at small footprint and introduced biogas desulphurisation with THIOPAQ®. In this way, the total effluent of TenCate is now treated.
