Solar Disinfection of Biologically Contaminated Spring Water in Nablus City
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Date
2017
Authors
Najjar, Eman
Houshyah, Manal
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Abstract
Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS) is a simple, environmentally sustainable, low-cost solution for drinking water treatment at household level for people consuming microbiologically contaminated raw water. SODIS uses solar energy to destroy pathogenic microorganisms causing water borne diseases and improve the quality of drinking water.
The present investigation was carried out to assess the efficiency of solar energy in disinfecting contaminated drinking water in Ein Shreesh in Nablus city. For this purpose, the system was consisted of disinfection reactors (tube) one of these reactors was packed with glass raschig ring packing material while the other was not packed, storage tank, packing material and aluminum reflector.
Contaminated water with various bacteria (Total Fecal Coliform, Escherichia Coli, Aerobic Bacteria and Staphylococcus) from Ein Shreesh in Nablus was used in this study. The strategy of this project was accorded as the following, initially the reactors were operated on three different modes that were batch, semi batch and continuous (with low and high flow rate). Moreover, each system was run in certain times and days. Secondary, contaminated water was passed through the reactors while the reactors were exposed to solar radiation for a specific time. Tertiary, the samples from each reactors were taken after specific period of time then the temperature for each sample and solar radiation were measured. After that the samples were tested according to plate count method.
The results were collected to study the effect of solar radiation and temperature on disinfection rate of bacteria count for each mode. However, the results were shown that packed reactor in semi batch, continuous (with high flow rate) and batch systems was more efficient in disinfection of bacteria count than un-packed. Also, un-packed reactor in continuous system (with low flow rate) was more efficient in disinfection of bacteria count than packed.
It was concluded that, the results can be more accurate at summer season when solar radiation range and temperature were higher. In addition, for determination which the system (batch, semi-batch and continuous) is more efficient on microbiological contamination reduction, the experiments should be conduct in the same time and conditions. Moreover, the systems can be tested in different diameters and lengths of reactors.