It is possible to reduce industrial water use in the textile sector by 40%. With this idea in mind, Italy (and Tuscany in particular) developed in the ''Prowater'' project, which was one of the four winners recognized by the European Commission for the best environmental projects in the 'Life' competition.
Selected from 21 finalists, the Italian project was designed and created by a national technological research firm specialized in textile production, Tecnotessile in Prato.
They were in competition in Brussels for the awards ceremony during 'Green Week'.
Considering the tremendous waste of water used in the 'humidifying process' in textile production, the Tuscan business focused its attention on the treatment and reuse of water that is normally disposed of as polluted waste.
Thanks to the new project, companies can now save money on clean water as well as reducing wastewater.
Thanks to various prototypes, Prowater demonstrated that it is possible to increase the recycling of water with physical, chemical and technologically innovative membrane processes, applied to four different production phases in the humidification of textiles.
The results went above and beyond expectations.
Regarding the parameters of pollution, for example, the treatment allowed 62% of the surface-activity agents to be removed the target was 50%. Colour also saw excellent results, with up to 98% removed (85% target).
Prowater's purification and re-utilization system also proved economically valid, both by analysing the cost efficiency aspect, and considering other purification processes and other possible alternative solutions.
In some processes, wastewater is reused after it has been treated, either by itself or mixed with clean water, bringing savings at the industrial level of 40% on the use of fresh water.
This means that if 500 textile industries with 1000 m3 of wastewater per day implemented the process, they would save 44 million m3 of clean water per year.
