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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2004, p. 1145-1151, Vol. 70, No. 2
0099-2240/04/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AEM.70.2.1145-1150.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Vilas Menon,2,
Catriona M. Duncanson,2 Ricardo Rojas,3 and Javad Tavakoli2*
Department of Biology,1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania 18042,2 Centro Panamericano de Ingenieria Sanitaria y Ciencias del Ambiente (CEPIS), Lima 100, Peru3
Received 1 August 2003/ Accepted 17 November 2003
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Conventional technologies used for disinfection of unpotable water include ozonation, chlorination, and artificial UV radiation. These technologies are capital intensive, require sophisticated equipment, and demand skilled operators (1, 16, 22). At the household level, boiling water for about 10 min or the use of certain chlorine compounds available in tablets (halazone or calcium hypochlorite) or solutions (sodium hypochlorite at 1 to 2 drops per liter) is commonly used to disinfect drinking water. A lack of resources and/or distribution infrastructure makes the application of these procedures extremely limited in developing countries where waterborne diseases are prevalent. Even if these methods are available and affordable, their implementation could be environmentally unsound or hygienically unsafe when performed by a layperson. Boiling, for example, requires about 1 kg of wood/liter of water, and misuse of sodium hypochlorite solution poses a safety hazard (2, 3, 10).
The use of solar irradiation for treatment of chemically and biologically contaminated water is not a new phenomenon (4, 7, 8, 15, 18-20). Solar radiation removes a wide range of organic chemicals and pathogenic organisms by direct exposure, is relatively inexpensive, and avoids generation of harmful by-products of chemically driven technologies (4). More importantly, the economics of the process are almost volume independent (9).
The bacterial inactivation rate in a contaminated water sample is proportional to the intensity of sunlight and atmospheric temperature and inversely proportional to the water depth (2). While sunlight can penetrate into water, its intensity decreases with the depth of penetration due to scattering caused by suspended particles present in the water (2, 6a). The reduction in intensity varies with wavelength; for wavelengths ranging from 200 to 400 nm the reduction in intensity does not exceed 5%/m of water depth; however, it rises as high as 40%/m for longer wavelengths (2).
The synergistic effects of two irradiation wavelengths (23, 24) and of light and heat (21) and the action of light on bacteria and living cells have been well documented (11-13). The most effective wavelengths for microbial destruction are the near-UV-A band (320 to 400 nm) and to a lesser extent the visible band of violet and blue light, 400 to 490 nm (2, 21). While there was no appreciable difference in the rate of bacterial inactivation for sample temperatures ranging from 12 to 40°C, when the water temperature was increased to 50°C, the same fraction of the initial population of Escherichia coli was inactivated by a much lower fluence (a threefold reduction [24]). This reduction was presumably due to the synergetic effects of solar radiation and thermal water treatment (24). While pasteurization of water occurs at 72°C (161°F) in a minimum of 15 s (5), bacterium-free water can be obtained by solar irradiation at lower temperatures with much longer residence times (5, 14).
Many researchers have reported results from limited laboratory studies under narrowly defined radiation bands (21, 23, 24). The polychromatic nature of solar light and its varying intensity with geographic location of incidence complicate extrapolation of these results and their implementation in actual designs. Additionally, different microorganisms behave differently when subjected to multiple irradiation wavelengths (2, 8, 19, 20, 24). Based on preliminary batch work, a solar disinfection unit was designed and constructed. In this study, the unit was used to measure bacterial inactivation of highly contaminated water from two wastewater treatment plants. The unit also was evaluated by the Centro Panamericano de Ingenieria Sanitaria y Ciencias del Ambiente (CEPIS) in Lima, Peru. The experimental results obtained by CEPIS using the solar disinfection unit with controlled contaminated water samples are reported.
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FIG. 1. (a) Solar disinfection unit base. Dimensions are in inches. (b) Solar water disinfection apparatus. The reactor is made of a 12- by 24- by 1/2-in. dark gray PVC base with a UV transmitting cover. The feed and collecting bottles are 2-liter transparent plastic bottles covered with white contact paper.
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Sample collection.
Water was taken from three different sources: two local municipal wastewater treatment plants in Phillipsburg, N.J., and Easton, Pa., and the Delaware River in Easton, Pa. Water from the treatment plants was sampled between the postsecondary clarifier and chlorination processes. Water used in all experiments, except turbidity studies, was relatively clear and free of visible suspended solids. Water used in turbidity studies was transparent, with nephelometric turbidity unit (NTU) values between 0.09 and 0.32.
Sample treatment.
The disinfection unit was tilted upward at the outlet end for approximately 1 in. to aid escape of any trapped air. Once the disinfection unit was filled with water, it was allowed to run for more than 1 unit volume at the set flow rate before any samples were collected. Multiple 100-ml samples (usually three) were collected at 10-min intervals for each of the residence times, which ranged from 5 to 74 min. Trials were conducted in June, July, and August 2000, under clear skies at ambient temperatures ranging from 22.9 to 33.3°C in Easton, Pa., between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. to ensure the highest sunlight intensity.
Sample testing.
The pH, dissolved oxygen (model 50 B; YSI Inc., Yellow Springs, Ohio), turbidity (HF Instruments DRT 100B; Shaban Manufacturing, Inc., Fort Myers, Fla.), nitrate (method 8507; Hach Co., Loveland, Colo.), orthophosphate (method 8048; Hach Co.), and temperature of water flowing in and out of the solar disinfection unit were monitored for all runs. Samples collected from the solar disinfection unit were filtered through a 0.45-µm-pore-size sterile membrane filter (Millipore Co., Bedford, Mass.). The filters were then placed into a 47-mm-diameter sterile Millipore petri dish (Precision Scientific Group, GCA Co., Chicago, Ill.) with m-ColiBlue24 broth-saturated pads (Millipore Co.; method 10029 [Hach Co.]) and incubated at 35°C for 24 h. A sample of the wastewater or river water was tested on the morning of each trial. Total coliforms and E. coli bacteria were counted following incubation.
Water samples from the solar disinfection unit were tested by Benchmark Analytics Laboratory (Center Valley, Pa.) using standard method 9222B, which corresponds to EPA-600-R-00-013 for E. coli (6). The limit of detection is <1 coliform/100 ml of water (6).
The unit also was field tested by CEPIS in Lima, Peru. Sunlight intensity was measured using a Haeni Solar 130 solarimeter. Tap water samples were inoculated with an overnight culture of mixed coliforms (Escherichia, Klebsiella, Enterobacter, and Citrobacter spp.) at 105 CFU/100 ml. Water samples were run through the solar disinfection unit, and effluent was tested by membrane filtration with sulfate lauryl broth (17) followed by incubation at 44 ± 0.1°C for 24 h. Total coliforms on the filters were counted.
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FIG. 2. Change in total coliform counts with increasing residence times in the continuous solar disinfection unit for municipal wastewater samples. Each data point represents the average of three samples. Error bars indicate standard errors.
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Water from the Delaware River was used to test the effectiveness of the disinfection unit on treating water samples with a low level of bacterial contamination. Water was collected from the Delaware River 2 mi upstream from the Easton municipal drinking water treatment plant. The samples were tested in the solar disinfection unit at residence times of 9, 20.5, and 41 min (Fig. 3). In approximately 40 min, the coliform count was reduced by 2 orders of magnitude. Feed water entered the unit at 25°C; the temperature of the effluent was 35 and 45°C for the 9- and 41-min residence times, respectively.
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FIG. 3. Change in total coliform counts with increasing residence times in the continuous solar disinfection unit for Delaware River water. Each data point represents the average of three samples. Error bars indicate standard errors.
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FIG. 4. Effect of turbidity on the time to achieve a 4-log10-U reduction in bacterial load for wastewater samples in the continuous solar disinfection unit. Water from four points in the Easton wastewater treatment facility (0.20 to 1.16 NTU) was treated in the solar disinfection unit. Each data point represents the average of three samples.
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TABLE 1. Treatment time and flow rate to reach a 4-log10-U reduction of coliforms for the experiments conducted at CEPIS with controlled contaminated tap water
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FIG. 5. Change in total coliform counts with increasing residence times in the continuous solar disinfection unit for a controlled contaminated water sample at CEPIS. Tap water samples were inoculated with 105 CFU of a culture of mixed coliforms/100 ml and processed in the solar disinfection unit at about 500 W of radiation/m2 and an 0.4-ml/s flow rate. Each data point presents the average of three samples.
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Water with low contamination (about 200 coliforms/100 ml) took longer to purify in the solar disinfection unit than did a more highly contaminated water sample (Fig. 2 and 3). This is in agreement with previous studies noting that less-contaminated water required a longer residence time for purification (23). Solar disinfection of water from the Kriesbach River (10 CFU/ml) required at least 500 W of solar radiation/m2 for a period of 5 h (24).
The effect of turbidity on the bacterial inactivation is shown in Fig. 4. It is evident that turbidity inversely affected the kill rate for bacteria; at higher turbidities, a longer time was needed to obtain the 4-log10-U reduction of coliforms. This finding corroborates similar results that have shown enhanced bacterial elimination under similar light intensity by lowering turbidity (2, 14, 24).
Experiments with controlled water samples at CEPIS demonstrated the interaction of radiation intensity, flow rate, and reaction space-time to achieve a similar coliform level (Table 1). At 800 W/m2, 60°C, and 0.5 ml/s, it took 32 min to reach 10 coliforms/100 ml whereas it took 60 min to reach similar results at 500 W/m2, 60°C, and 0.3 ml/s. These experiments point to the effectiveness of the solar unit in eradicating contaminating bacteria under a variety of radiation intensities and flow rates.
In summary, a solar disinfection unit has been designed and successfully tested for disinfection of contaminated water under polychromatic solar light. The unit destroyed more than 99% of bacterial coliforms in both controlled and naturally contaminated water samples in less than 30 min. The unit is portable, and it can easily produce 2 gal of treated water on a sunny summer day. The major application of solar water disinfection could come in areas rich in sunshine but distant from reliable water purification systems.
Funding for this project was provided in part by Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (Bethlehem, Pa.) (to J.T.) and through the Lafayette College EXCEL Scholars Program (to D.J.C., V.M., and C.M.D.).
Present address: Rohm and Haas Co., Spring House, PA 19477. ![]()
Present address: Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208. ![]()
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