Home » Case Studies » Case Studies: Filtration » Case Study: Axminister Carpets

Axminster Carpet’s wool processing factory located at Buckfast in Devon produced 400m³/day dyehouse and scour wastewater, but increasing disposal costs, legislative and environmental pressures forced a complete rethink of the way their effluent was handled. Outdated chemical flocculation treatment (DAF) further contributed to the problem by adding to the environmental burden and operational costs.

Keen to find a better solution Buckfast approached Axium to see if Membrane Technology could provide an answer.

Following a series of on-site trials with carefully selected membranes Axium developed and demonstrated a robust proposal that offered the following benefits:

• Recover & recycle 85% of the water, high in quality and soft
• Effluent reduced by 85%
• Recovered water around 40°C
• Considerable savings against incoming water, effluent discharge, and in-process heating
• Eliminated flocculation chemicals, hazardous materials with associated costs
• Compliance with green initiatives and future legislative requirements
• Ensured a reliable, secure, consistent water supply for dye house operations

Using data from the trials Axium designed and built a two-stage membrane process incorporating Ultrafiltration and Reverse Osmosis technology, which only used pressure to separate and concentrate contaminants.

Recovered water was hot, pure, free of dissolved mineral salts and suspended solids. Being soft and of consistent quality it was ideal for highly sensitive dyeing operations where colour stability was essential. 

The 15% concentrated effluent was further processed by evaporation creating an almost closed loop, chemical free, zero liquid discharge (ZLD) process.