Evaluation of indigenous solar water disinfection reactor

Abstract EN

Feasibility of enhancing the efficiency of solar disinfection units by utilizing an indigenous solar water disinfection reactor (SWDR), as an alternative and economical mean of disinfecting municipal water, has been studied.

Several experiments were performed to investigate the effects of different control parameters on disinfection efficiency of SWDR including material type of containers, exposure time and water turbidity.

temperature of reactor base reached 62± 1°C within 2.5 hours corresponding to the ambient temperature of 28± 1°C.

Water temperature in transparent polyethylene bag reached 55± 1°C while colored polyethylene bag reached a minimum temperature of 46± 1°C as compared to other tested container materials during the solar exposure of 2.5 hours.

various parameters such as water pH, total coliform, heterotrophic plate count (HPC) and viral indicator coliphage were investigated before and after the experiment in order to test the water disinfecting efficiency of reactor.

it was found that water having turbidity less than 23 NTU can be treated within 2.5 hours with 99.99% efficiency.

however, utilizing SWDR one may get similar efficiency even water turbidity reached to 29.5 NTU in similar environmental conditions.

results revealed that SWDR is more efficient and may be used to disinfect water in lesser time.