1. Context

The reuse of treated water is particularly interesting for the following reasons:

• helps preserve the natural environment by minimizing water withdrawals (whatever their use) and discharges;

• can be economically justified compared to the treatment of degraded surface or ground water, which requires increasingly complex treatment systems.

This type of decision must always be taken with a view to supplying water of a consistently high quality for the intended use (production water, washing water, cooling water, irrigation water, etc.).

Conventional processes may then prove unsuitable, notably because of their unreliability in terms of treated water quality and the risk of microbiological contamination, unless additional tertiary treatment stages including...