Transition towards Sustainable Carwash Wastewater Management: Trends and Enabling Technologies at Global Scale

Abstract

Carwash wastewater (CWW) contains grease, oil, hydrocarbon residues, heavy metals, and surfactants, posing severe impacts to the environment and human health. Accordingly, various physical, chemical, and biological processes for CWW treatment have been demonstrated in recent research. In this study, a bibliometric approach was performed to comprehensively illustrate the recent progress, current direction, and future perspectives of CWW-related research. A keyword co-occurrence network was used to represent the results of the bibliometric analysis and to show the major pollutants in CWW effluents and the common systems for treating CWW via coagulation/flocculation, electrochemical, oxidation, membrane, adsorption, biological, and hybrid methods. An integrated anaerobic digestion/oxidation process has been reported to degrade CWW-associated pollutants and help develop an energy-efficient approach for waste management. The results demonstrated that the treatment of CWW has several benefits relevant to sustainable development, viz., good health and well-being, protection of life below water, bioenergy generation, and community awareness and acceptance towards wastewater reuse. Hence, these benefits could assist in meeting the environmental, economic, and social sustainable development goals (SDGs). These study outputs can encourage policymakers and stakeholders in implementing sensible regulations that control water usage and treatment in car sharing and personal vehicle services to either directly or indirectly adopt the agenda 2030 with its seventeen SDGs.

The Application of Polyethersulfone Ultrafiltration Membranes for Separation of Car Wash Wastewaters: Experiments and Modelling

“…Consequently, car washing generates a large volume of wastewater which presents a complex composition and is extremely damaging to the environment. Indeed, car washes discharge effluents contain significant concentrations of various contaminants, such as detergents, oil, grease, dust and sand, chemicals, heavy metals, as well as organic matter [ 4 , 5 , 6 ]. As a result, wastewaters are characterized by high values of both the chemical oxygen demand (COD; >400 mg O 2 /L) [ 2 , 7 ] and turbidity (up to 1000 NTU) [ 2 ].…”

Electrocoagulation Process as a Consolidated Technology in the Treatment of Industrial Effluents and as a Promising Process in the Treatment of Effluents Generated by Car Washes: A Brief Review

“…OG content in a range of 25.0−1500 mg•L −1 was mentioned by researchers 251,280 The measured and reported COD content varies between 25.0 and 14.010 mg O2 • L −1 , according to the authors. 41,251,255,273,279 The TSS content found in the most current literature was from 68.0 to 21,900 mg•L −1 , as shown in studies by the authors. 41,237,273,279 Regarding the phosphate content, values between 4.0 and 187.0 mg L −1 are reported by researchers.…”

“…The TSS content found in the most current literature was from 68.0 to 21,900 mg·L –1 , as shown in studies by the authors. ,,, Regarding the phosphate content, values between 4.0 and 187.0 mg L –1 are reported by researchers. ,, Another very impactful contaminant is the MBAS class, where concentrations between 1.3 and 290.0 mg·L –1 are reported in studies by the authors. ,, …”

“…In effluents from vehicle washing stations, several contamination parameters can be found, the main ones (OG; COD; TSS; SO 4 –2 ; PO 4 –3 , turbidity, and MBAS) in very varied concentrations. OG content in a range of 25.0–1500 mg·L –1 was mentioned by researchers , The measured and reported COD content varies between 25.0 and 14.010 mg O2 ·L –1 , according to the authors. ,,,, …”

“…41,237,255 Another very impactful contaminant is the MBAS class, where concentrations between 1.3 and 290.0 mg•L −1 are reported in studies by the authors. 237,255,279 In the last two decades, the increase in transport facilities and the improvement of the standard of living of people have driven the acquisition of vehicles and, with this, the vehicle wash activities have increased expressively and, consequently, the volume of effluents generated in this activity has increased expressively. Therefore, the treatment of these effluents has become an eminent need on a global scale.…”