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Jan 24, 2020 / in Blog Articles

There are a number of ways to sanitise or disinfect water for reuse which we shall highlight over the next few weeks.

ULTRAVIOLET GERMICIDAL IRRADIATION

Peak oil was bandied about a few years ago.The theory that at some point in time, global oil production would peak and begin to drop whilst demand should continue to grow. But there is a more serious global situation with water availability limited or peaked whilst demand continues to grow.

South Africa is the 48th most water stressed country in the world and compounding the problem is that infrastructure has been neglected for 25 years. So the battle against water scarcity in this country is on. Thus there is an acute awareness of the need to reuse effluent and other treated water which is currently going down the drain. The time has come for wastewater treatment plants to be act as water reclamation facilities. What reclamation method to use?

Firstly there is ultraviolet germicidal irradiation or UVGI which is a disinfection or sanitizing method that uses short wavelength (254 nm) ultraviolet light in order to kill or inactivate microorganisms. A key factor in using this method is the flow rate; too high means insufficient UV exposure, too low and heat build-up could damage the UV lamp. Another disadvantage is that suspended particles could hide or shield microorganisms from the UV light and so a prefilter system is usually required.

Filcon Filters can assist with UV systems and can provide a wide range of prefiltration products.