The Advanced Oxidation Technology or TADOX, developed by Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi, is set to revolutionise the reuse of wastewater in an affordable and sustainable manner.
The new technology helps in reducing less dependence and load on biological and tertiary treatment systems and help achieve Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD). It uses UV-Photocatalysis can treat municipal sewage and highly polluting industrial wastewater streams and increase its reuse as a technological option in industrial as well as municipal wastewater treatments.
With ever-increasing water crisis, it becomes imperative for industries & utilities to reuse ‘treated water’. However, the current treatment practices are inefficient because of high dependence on biological treatment systems, which are unable to bear shock loads. This is followed by tertiary treatment systems involving RO and Multi Effect Evaporators (MEE). These systems have large carbon footprint and maintenance costs making the wastewater treatment highly unsustainable and unaffordable. These researchers have felt the need to integrate novel approaches and advanced technologies in current systems.
EFFICIENCY
It improves biodegradability, thereby preventing bio-fouling of membranes and enhancing life span and efficiency of RO systems as also overall load on evaporators like Multiple Effect Evaporators and Mechanical vapour recompression (MVR), and so on. It can reduce Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), dissolved organics, pathogens, Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), and Micropollutants.
TADOX could be integrated and retrofittable in existing treatment systems making it a viable option as a novel Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Technology (DWTT) applicable in upcoming and existing infrastructural projects, townships, commercial complexes, green buildings, and smart cities.
DEVELOPMENT
The technology supported by the Water Technology Initiative (WTI) of the Department of Science and Technology involves UV-Photocatalysis as an Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) at the secondary treatment stage leading to oxidative degradation and mineralization of targeted pollutants. The technology has been adopted by an MSME Company to scale up to 10 Kilo Litre per Day continuous running plant in TERI Gurugram campus.
