Application of a multiple criteria analysis for the selection of appropriate radical based processes in treatment of car wash wastewater

In this study, the treatment of car wash wastewater was investigated by radical based hybrid/combined processes. Proposed processes, (Microwave (MW) + persulfate (PS) + Electrocoagulation (EC)), (ozone (O3) + PS + EC) and (MW + PS + O3), were optimized with Taguchi orthogonal array technique for maximum COD removal. The COD removal under optimum conditions was obtained to be 84%, 64.9% and 61.4%, for (MW + PS+ EC), (O3 + PS+ EC) and (MW + PS+ O3) processes, respectively. Operating costs for (MW + PS + EC), (O3 + PS + EC) and (MW + PS + O3) processes have been calculated as 0.2614, 0.1335 and 0.2653 €/L wastewater under optimum operating conditions. Pareto analysis showed that MW time and PS dose are very effective parameters but especially ozone related parameters have no significant effect on COD removal. Processes were evaluated with the PROMETHEE approach in terms of treatment efficiency, operating cost, sludge formation, and preferability criteria to determine the most suitable among the three alternative processes. As a result, the preference order of the processes for the treatment of car wash wastewater with radical based treatment processes was found as (MW + EC + PS) > (MW + O3 + PS) > (O3 + EC + PS).