Ozone in Treatment of laundry water
Laundry water is rich in detergents and surfactants, most of which are very slow to degrade. This increases the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD). This water can no longer be let out in to the sewage system. Today the use of ozone for treating this water has increased many folds. Ozone is used in the laundry water to break down the detergents to more biodegradable molecules.
The normal procedure is to introduce ozone in the inlet water itself for the laundry. Since ozone has bleaching property, low ozone dosage of ozone helps in not bleaching the fabrics, while enabling the washed clothes come out brighter and sanitised at the same time. The sanitisation of wash helps in its use in hospitals as well as in hotels for sterilised fabrics. Another beneficial factor of using ozone in water for the garment wash is that ozone works best at lower or ambient temperatures and hence using hot water is dispensed with. This helps in eliminating the cost of heating water for the laundry; thereby offering a low ROI on the capital expense. Also, using ozonised water for laundry reduces the requirement of detergents to less than half thereby not only reducing the cost of detergents, but also helps in reducing load on the downstream waste water treatment plant.
