Solar water disinfection (SODIS) is the process of treating microbiologically contaminated water in clear plastic bottles through exposure to sunlight. One of the major limiting factors of this treatment is source water quality. This work investigates the impact of source water colour on SODIS efficiency and evaluates a natural coagulant for colour removal. The ability of Moringa oleifera seed emulsion to both clarify and decolourize source waters was investigated as a coagulation pretreatment for SODIS. This coagulant reduced the colour by more than two-thirds and achieved up to 1-log10 bacterial removal (90%). The combined Moringa oleifera coagulation-SODIS treatment sequence was tested in highly coloured natural source water and was found to reduce the sunlight exposure time required by up to 2 hours. However, despite being an effective clarification and decolouring process, the pretreatment may not shorten the overall treatment time because of its own labour and time requirements, potentially decreasing the treatment compliance rates. In addition, while total coliform and heterotrophic bacteria regrowth was observed during overnight storage of the treated water, no Escherichia coli regrowth was found to occur.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
Research Article|
March 01 2011
Impact of a natural coagulant pretreatment for colour removal on solar water disinfection (SODIS)
Sarah A. Wilson;
1Department of Civil Engineering, University of Toronto, 35 St George Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A4, Canada
E-mail: sarahanne.wilson@gmail.com
Search for other works by this author on:
Susan A. Andrews
Susan A. Andrews
1Department of Civil Engineering, University of Toronto, 35 St George Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A4, Canada
Search for other works by this author on:
Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development (2011) 1 (1): 57–67.
Article history
Received:
October 19 2010
Accepted:
February 08 2011
Citation
Sarah A. Wilson, Susan A. Andrews; Impact of a natural coagulant pretreatment for colour removal on solar water disinfection (SODIS). Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development 1 March 2011; 1 (1): 57–67. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2011.027
Download citation file:
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Client Account
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.
Could not validate captcha. Please try again.
Impact Factor 1.786
CiteScore 2.2 • Q2
38 days from submission to first decision on average