What holds back energy-efficient ZLD in textiles?
Everyone knows wastewater treatment uses a lot of energy, which is a big sustainability challenge. In the textile industry, ZLD (Zero Liquid Discharge) is mostly done using MEE+RO systems, traditional systems are still widely used even though they consume huge amounts of energy. Many suppliers focus only on meeting legal rules (compliance) rather than saving energy, because new technologies need high upfront investment and the benefits take time to recover.
The effluent treatment technologies requires high energy for treating the generated wastewater. Hence one of the way to reduce the energy consumption is by reducing the water consumption at the facility. So by lowering the water consumption at the facility it will also result in less energy needed to treat the generated wastewater. In view of this ZDHC is currently working on water use targets for textile and leather wet processing facilities and the draft of this is expected to be related by the end of 2025.