Car wash water reuse

The resistance of automotive coatings to washing water recovered in 50% and 70% from wastewater generated at car wash was tested. The wastewater was purified in the ultrafiltration process using tubular polyvinylidene fluoride membranes (100 and 200 kDa) manufactured by PCI company. The membranes retained oil contamination and over 50% of surfactants. The obtained permeate had turbidity below 0.2 NTU. For comparison, the 0.5% Turbo Active Green solution used at car washes was also used in the tests. The tested solutions washed the painted surfaces of samples taken from car doors for several days. The paint resistance to washing fluids was assessed by measuring gloss, Haze, RIQ and Rspec. Scratch resistance was also assessed. The obtained results indicated that the use of water recovered from wastewater did not deteriorate the quality of the paint coating.