Disinfection of Wastewater by UV Irradiation: Influence of Hydrodynamics on the Performance of the Disinfection

Abstract

Several mathematical relationships have been developed to describe bacterial responses to UV irradiation. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was taken as a bacterial model. The results obtained showed that the kinetics of disinfection is far to be as uniform. In fact, application of the model of Chick-Watson in its original form or modification, taking into account the speed change during the disinfection process, has not significantly improved results. The application of both models of Collins-Selleck and Hom constitute a major opportunity to simulate goodly the kinetics of UV disinfection. The results obtained showed that despite the major advantage held by applying the Hom model in this process of disinfection and for all strains studied, the model of Collins-Selleck gave the best results for the description of the UV inactivation process. The design of reactors, operating in continuous disinfection system, requires taking into account the hydrodynamic behaviour of water in the reactor. Knowing that a reduction of 4-log is necessary in the case of wastewater reuse for irrigation, a model integrating the expression of disinfection kinetics and the hydrodynamics through the UV irradiation room was proposed. The results highlight the interest to develop reactors in series working as four perfectly mixed reactors.