Technical and economical evaluation of water recycling in the carwash industry with membrane processes

In the carwash industry, water recycling is necessary to be in accordance with present and upcoming environmental laws. As this is not possible with traditional techniques, membrane processes (like ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF)) are technically and economically evaluated in this study. Concerning the technical part, there needs to be a compromise between a high permeate permeability on the one hand and a high permeate purity on the other hand. Depending on the use of the purified wastewater, ultrafiltration (to recycle wastewater in the main wash cycle) or nanofiltration (to recycle wastewater in the rinsing step) would be the optimal choice. Concerning the financial part, the implementation of membrane processes in the wastewater purification installation is economically feasible, especially when expensive tap water is used as pure water. These positive evaluations imply that membrane processes can be useful to recycle wastewater in the carwash industry, on condition that the right membrane type (with the least membrane fouling) and the right process format (e.g., hybrid process of UF and/or NF with a biological treatment) is selected.