UV-applications

Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP)

Treatment of wastewater containing COD and surfactants from the cosmetics industry

Advanced Oxidation for the Treatment of Cosmetic Wastewater!

In the cosmetic industry, a large number of substances are used in formulation to produce optimal, environmentally friendly and consumer-friendly products:
- Surfactants, anionic, cationic and nonionic (cleaning effect)
- complexing agents (to stabilize the products)
- metal ions, e.g. Zinc for skin care
- Colorants, decolorizing agents and primers in hair care


All these substances end up in the wastewater when machines and bottling plants are cleaned and come together in the wastewater plant. This complex mixture in cosmetic wastewater poses difficult tasks for conventional methods of wastewater treatment when economical and compact treatment is required.

Enviolet's advanced oxidation process /AOP) initially destroys surfactants and complexing agents. In a further step, fats and metal ions can then be separated after the actual UV oxidation.

Two examples of our AOP systems in which UV oxidation processes have been successfully implemented for cosmetic wastewater:

Example 1:
460 m³/d wastewater (average COD about 15 g/L) from a manufacturer of cosmetics made from a mixture of surfactants, dyes, complexing agents, fats, metal ions and oxidizing agents must have an value of COD <600 mg/L before discharge to the local sewer. The average of the untreated waste water is loadede with a COD of 15 g/L.
Additional requirements for discharge of treated wastewater are also:
- COD < 600 mg/L
- EDTA below the detection limit
- no color (all dyes destroyed)
- no heavy metals like Zink
- ... etc..
Videolink to this reference.

Example 2:
10 m³/d wastewater from a contract manufacturer of cosmetic products contains a COD load of approx. 50 g/L, the majority of which are anionic, nonionic and cationic surfactants, and also fats. The wastewater from the company means that the municipal sewage treatment plant regularly overflows and delivered foam into the local river. Antifoam agents prevent the worst in the sewage treatment plant, but lose their effect when diluted in the receiving water and the flowing water foams again. Since enviolet operated UV oxidation, these problems have been eliminated and the cosmetic company has been able to expand its production, which previously failed because of the described wastewater problem.


The UV-based AOP systems (Advanced Oxidation Process Systems) from Enviolet are able to treat even optically dense media economically and are ideally suited for all applications in the cosmetic industry. A major advantage is that there is no significant amount of secondary waste of a problematic nature, as is the case with other processes (precipitation, evaporation, etc.). In the cosmetic industry we often combine our oxidation processes with biological oxidation (municipal or industrial).

Enviolet's advanced oxidation processes can be customized through feasibility studies in order to ensure an optimal result of the oxidation of cosmetic wastewater while adhering to all limit values.
Our partner company, a.c.k. aqua concept GmbH, can rent various pilot systems as interim solution.

Treatment of cosmetic waste water in compact systems

AOP for smaller quantities of cosmetic wastewater with high concentrations

Advanced oxidation processes are ideally suited for the treatment of smaller amounts of cosmetic water, especially if they contain high substance loads. Compact UV-AOPs are able to offer flexible treatment concepts even with wastewater volumes between 5 and 50 m³ wastewater per day. These advanced oxidation systems usually consist of a single-stage UV batch with a subsequent physical stage. Wastewater that was previously disposed of at great expense can then be discharged into the municipal sewage network.