The use of sunlight for water disinfection has been practiced since ancient times. Only in the last three decades has solar disinfection become widely recognized as a viable means of providing safe drinking water to the disadvantaged portion of the world’s population. The World Health Organization estimates that 1.6 million people die every year because of waterborne diseases. <br/><br/> The Swiss Federal Institute of Environmental Science and Technology and their Department of Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries have been instrumental in propagating the solar water disinfection (SODIS) process in developing countries. The reason for this technology being widely used and accepted is its ease of use and effectiveness: water is placed in clear plastic bottles and exposed to direct sunlight for approximately six hours. The microorganisms in the water absorb the sunlight and it, in turn at sufficient UV dosages, causes mutations to their genetic material, inhibiting reproduction. Although some pathogens may still be viable they are no longer infective. The result is microbiologically safe water. <br/><br/> Research to date has explored everything from which colour and size the SODIS containers should be to whether adding catalysts to the water before exposure improves disinfection. Apart from a few studies that examined the effect of shaking the bottles (to entrain air) before exposure, there has been limited research on pretreatments for enhancing solar disinfection. <br/><br/> The focus of this project was to explore two pretreatments for SODIS and determine how they affect the efficiency of the process. The first stage was to examine one of the currently used pretreatments: cleaning the water containers before use. The second stage was to develop an accessible, low-cost filtration technique to remove particles from the water before exposure to sunlight. Particles in the water disperse the light and protect the microorganisms from being inactivated, so it is important to have as few particles as possible; the recommended upper limit is 30 NTU for solar disinfection. In many instances, surface water with high turbidity (greater than 200 NTU) serves as the only source for drinking water in developing areas. <br/><br/> The first series of experiments in the current research evaluated if cleaning the bottles was necessary and if so, which cleaning agents would be most effective and available. The agents selected were 70% isopropyl alcohol, a soap-water mixture, and lime juice. The experiments demonstrated that cleaning with 70% isopropyl alcohol did not affect the process in any way. Cleaning with the soap-water mixture did have a slightly negative effect on the process; there was substantial microbial recovery when bottles were kept in the dark overnight. In the case of the lime juice, it actually inhibited the disinfection process. It is necessary to remove any debris that might exist within the containers before using them, but using a chemical cleaning agent or mechanically scrubbing can decrease the amount of disinfection that occurs during SODIS. Thus, it is suggested that using a chemical pretreatment is not necessary and has the potential to inhibit disinfection, especially without proper training or technical knowledge. <br/><br/> The second series of experiments identified the optimal design for a low-cost roughing filter that could be used to remove particles from water before exposure to sunlight. The roughing filter that was built from the same plastic pop bottles used for solar disinfection, as well as gravel and sand. It was constructed with three centimetres of gravel on the bottom of the pop bottle and then 17 cm of coarse sand was added on top to make the total filter height 20 cm. A 0.6 mm hole was made at approximately 1.5 cm from the bottom of the bottle using a standard sewing needle. Each filter run consisted of 10 L of water at approximately 200 NTU. Experimental results indicated that 95% removal of turbidity could be achieved. These roughing filters can be constructed from readily available and affordable materials in developing countries and produce an effluent water quality of less than 30 NTU when initial turbidities are greater than 200 NTU. <br/><br/> Finally, the third series of experiments focused on testing the newly developed roughing filter in series with SODIS to evaluate the system as a whole. The results confirmed that using the roughing filter, as a pretreatment to SODIS, is a highly effective means of improving the disinfection potential of the process. These roughing filters produce an effluent water quality of less than 30 NTU, which is required for SODIS, making them a viable pretreatment for turbid water intended for SODIS use.

The use of sunlight for water disinfection has been practiced since ancient times. Only in the last three decades has solar disinfection become widely recognized as a viable means of providing safe drinking water to the disadvantaged portion of the world’s population. The World Health Organization estimates that 1.6 million people die every year because of waterborne diseases. <br/><br/> The Swiss Federal Institute of Environmental Science and Technology and their Department of Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries have been instrumental in propagating the solar water disinfection (SODIS) process in developing countries. The reason for this technology being widely used and accepted is its ease of use and effectiveness: water is placed in clear plastic bottles and exposed to direct sunlight for approximately six hours. The microorganisms in the water absorb the sunlight and it, in turn at sufficient UV dosages, causes mutations to their genetic material, inhibiting reproduction. Although some pathogens may still be viable they are no longer infective. The result is microbiologically safe water. <br/><br/> Research to date has explored everything from which colour and size the SODIS containers should be to whether adding catalysts to the water before exposure improves disinfection. Apart from a few studies that examined the effect of shaking the bottles (to entrain air) before exposure, there has been limited research on pretreatments for enhancing solar disinfection. <br/><br/> The focus of this project was to explore two pretreatments for SODIS and determine how they affect the efficiency of the process. The first stage was to examine one of the currently used pretreatments: cleaning the water containers before use. The second stage was to develop an accessible, low-cost filtration technique to remove particles from the water before exposure to sunlight. Particles in the water disperse the light and protect the microorganisms from being inactivated, so it is important to have as few particles as possible; the recommended upper limit is 30 NTU for solar disinfection. In many instances, surface water with high turbidity (greater than 200 NTU) serves as the only source for drinking water in developing areas. <br/><br/> The first series of experiments in the current research evaluated if cleaning the bottles was necessary and if so, which cleaning agents would be most effective and available. The agents selected were 70% isopropyl alcohol, a soap-water mixture, and lime juice. The experiments demonstrated that cleaning with 70% isopropyl alcohol did not affect the process in any way. Cleaning with the soap-water mixture did have a slightly negative effect on the process; there was substantial microbial recovery when bottles were kept in the dark overnight. In the case of the lime juice, it actually inhibited the disinfection process. It is necessary to remove any debris that might exist within the containers before using them, but using a chemical cleaning agent or mechanically scrubbing can decrease the amount of disinfection that occurs during SODIS. Thus, it is suggested that using a chemical pretreatment is not necessary and has the potential to inhibit disinfection, especially without proper training or technical knowledge. <br/><br/> The second series of experiments identified the optimal design for a low-cost roughing filter that could be used to remove particles from water before exposure to sunlight. The roughing filter that was built from the same plastic pop bottles used for solar disinfection, as well as gravel and sand. It was constructed with three centimetres of gravel on the bottom of the pop bottle and then 17 cm of coarse sand was added on top to make the total filter height 20 cm. A 0.6 mm hole was made at approximately 1.5 cm from the bottom of the bottle using a standard sewing needle. Each filter run consisted of 10 L of water at approximately 200 NTU. Experimental results indicated that 95% removal of turbidity could be achieved. These roughing filters can be constructed from readily available and affordable materials in developing countries and produce an effluent water quality of less than 30 NTU when initial turbidities are greater than 200 NTU. <br/><br/> Finally, the third series of experiments focused on testing the newly developed roughing filter in series with SODIS to evaluate the system as a whole. The results confirmed that using the roughing filter, as a pretreatment to SODIS, is a highly effective means of improving the disinfection potential of the process. These roughing filters produce an effluent water quality of less than 30 NTU, which is required for SODIS, making them a viable pretreatment for turbid water intended for SODIS use.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T15:01:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao - parte 1.pdf: 89652 bytes, checksum: 199b51d4bc46d91c1268d2961517e29e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-08-17 / This work presents an evaluation of the performance of a multi-stage filtration system (FiME) in pilot-plant scale to treat surface water from the Ribeirão Sozinha stream which supplies the city of Goianápolis-GO, Brazil. The arrangement of the installation used in this study consisted of a dynamic roughing filter (PFD), a up-flow roughing filter (PFA) and two slow sand filters, being one with sand (FLA) and the other with sand and granular activated carbon (FLACAG). The filtration rates varied from 24 to 48 m3/m2.d in the PFD, 12 to 18 m3/m2.d in the PFA, and 3 to 4 m3/m2.d in the FLA and FLACAG. The performance of each unit was evaluated for removal of color, turbidity, total iron, suspended solids, oxygen consumption, total coliforms and E.coli, and the development of headloss. Results showed that the PFD and PFA are important units in the preparation of affluent water to the slow sand filters, allowing relatively long filtration runs resulted from the removal of larger particles by these units, reducing significantly the turbidity of raw water. The slow sand filters presented larger than 90% of removal efficiency of color, turbidity, suspended solids and total iron, removal over 80% of consumed oxygen and above 95% for coliforms removal. Overall, the slow sand filters showed satisfactory performance in removing turbidity, iron and total coliforms. In particular, the slow sand filter with sand and granular activated carbon layers was more efficient in removing true color and consumed oxygen than the filter with single sand layer. Although peaks of color and turbidity during the fourth and last filtration runs, the FiME system proved to be efficient in removing total coliforms and E.coli in the last three weeks of operation. In the last filtration run, a comparison of the effluent water quality between the FiME system and a conventional full scale treatment plant was carried out for the removal of turbidity and color. Results showed that the FiME system produced similar water quality to the conventional treatment plant when turbidity was < 1,0. In general, results suggest that the FiME is an effective system to produce water quality from surface water with high levels of total coliforms and E.coli and peaks of color and turbidity according to the recommendations of the Portaria 518/2004 of the Ministry of Health, Brazil / Este trabalho apresenta uma avaliação do desempenho de um sistema de Filtração em Múltiplas Etapas (FiME), em escala piloto, no tratamento da água bruta retirada do manancial superficial (Ribeirão Sozinha) que abastece a cidade de Goianápolis-GO. O arranjo da instalação utilizado nessa pesquisa constituiu de 1 pré-filtro dinâmico (PFD), 1 pré-filtro ascendente (PFA) e 2 filtros lentos, sendo um com areia (FLA) e outro com areia e carvão ativado granular (FLACAG). As taxas de filtração utilizadas foram de 24, 48, 24 e 24 m3/m2.d para o PFD; 12, 18, 12 e 12 m3/m2.d para o PFA; e 3, 4, 3 e 3 m3/m2.d para o FLA e FLACAG. O desempenho de cada unidade foi avaliado quanto à remoção de cor, turbidez, ferro total, sólidos suspensos, oxigênio consumido, coliformes totais e termotolerantes, e o desenvolvimento da perda de carga. Os resultados obtidos demonstraram que o PFD e o PFA são unidades importantes na preparação da água afluente aos filtros lentos, possibilitando carreiras relativamente longas em função da retenção de partículas maiores, diminuindo consideravelmente a turbidez da água bruta. Os filtros lentos apresentaram eficiência superior a 90% na remoção de cor, turbidez, sólidos suspensos e ferro total, remoção de oxigênio consumido superior a 80% e de coliformes acima de 95%. Na última carreira de filtração foi realizada uma comparação da qualidade da água produzida pela tecnologia da FiME com a ETA de ciclo completo, na remoção de cor e turbidez, comprovando que a qualidade da água produzida na FiME é compatível com a qualidade da água produzida pela tecnologia de ciclo completo. De maneira geral, os filtros lentos apresentaram rendimento satisfatório na remoção de turbidez, ferro total e coliformes, sendo que o filtro lento com camada intermediária de carvão ativado granular foi mais eficiente na remoção de cor verdadeira e oxigênio consumido do que os filtro lento com camada simples de areia. Embora tenha ocorrido picos de cor e turbidez durante a quarta e última carreira de filtração, o sistema FiME mostrou-se eficiente na remoção de coliformes totais e termotolerantes nas três últimas semanas de operação. A verificação da existência de correlação na remoção de cor, turbidez, sólidos suspensos, oxigênio consumido, coliformes totais e termotolerantes, demonstrou a existência de uma boa correlação na remoção dos parâmetros cor e turbidez nos efluentes dos filtros lentos, apresentando um coeficiente de correlação igual a 0,92. Os resultados obtidos sugerem que o sistema FiME é eficiente no tratamento de águas superficiais com elevados teores de coliformes totais e termotolerantes e com picos de cor e turbidez, produzindo, quando operado adequadamente, água com baixos teores de cor, turbidez e bactérias do grupo coliforme, atendendo as recomendações da Portaria 518/2004 do Ministério da Saúde, evidenciando a viabilidade de aplicação dessa tecnologia na produção de água para consumo humano