IONTEX

Toxic ionic species removal from drinking and industrial water: new filtration systems using functionalised textiles

Toxic ionic compounds presenting health hazards are currently found in European drinking water. For surface treatment SMEs, current wastewater treatment do not allow to zero waste.

In nuclear power-plant, purification of contaminated water from storage combustible pools is not totally solved by ion exchange resins (lifetime, efficiency, residue). The main objective is to develop functionnalised textiles, implemented in water filtration systems, able to remove toxic ionic species (nitrates, heavy-metals and radio-elements): cellulosic ion-exchange fibres made via a clean technology (grafting by Electron Beam Curing); new antibacterial functionnalised fibres made by chemical treatment during fibre production stage ; specific water filtration systems (electrodialys, regenerative cartridge) implementing grafted non-wovens with special structure (bonding, thickness). With this new textiles generation, new markets for textile and wastewater treatment are expected at very short term.