New Photocatalyst Systems for Iintegrated Water Treatment in Textile Finishing

Abstract

Photocatalysis is widely explored for the decontamination of water polluted mainly by organic compounds. Although a nearly unmanageable amount of articles is published the technology is still not established in commercial waste water treatment. Within two consecutive projects the German Aerospace Center DLR develops together with its industrial partners Carl Albany Gardinenfabrik, Torey, Knopf´s Sohn, Weskott, Brückner, SETEX, and EnviroTex the technology for integrated application in textile finishing processes. The problems to be solved are an adaptation of the chemistry to the conditions of textile finishing and the integration of the additional treatment plant into the automated production processes. Therefore as well new photocatalyst system are under development as new water treatment reactors, and a computer based input –output analysis to optimise the whole production process. In this paper recent work on new catalyst systems and application on textile finishing waters are described.