Process for treatment of waste waters from special laundry

A washing agent was developed for use in laundries where effluents are treated by evaporation. The agent is based on a mixture of non-ionogenic and chelating detergents according to a Czechoslovak patent. The content of softeners is reduced. The agent does not contain fillers which are useless and only increase the volume of solidified liquid waste. The agent is marketed as ALFA-DEO. The comparison was made with the previously used laundry and decontamination agents. The sorption-precipitation and precipitation processes are described and the results of semi-pilot and pilot plant experiments are given. These experiments revealed that efficiency of both processes is approximately equal. In both cases 90 to 95% of initially present radionuclides and all phosphates were removed whereas the content of detergents in the treated water corresponded to 1 to 3 mg laurylsulfonate per liter. Under specific dosing conditions ALPHA-DEO can also be used in laundries where wastes are treated by precipitation. (J.B.). 1 tab