Emergency water treatment using hydrocyclones

Post disaster, emergency water treatment in low and middle income countries is an ongoing dilemma. Systems must be effective and quick to install whilst being robust and simple to operate and maintain. A test bench was constructed to assess the effectiveness of a one inch (25mm) hydrocyclone as part of an emergency water treatment process. Natural and artificial water samples ranging in turbidity between 105 and 2489 NTU were passed through the hydrocyclone using various configurations of inlet pressure, vortex finder and spigot size. Turbidity removal varied between zero and 30.18% with the best results being achieved from samples with the highest turbidity and the hydrocylone fitted with the smallest vortex finder and largest spigot. None of the effluent samples achieved a turbidity of less than 20NTU concluding that, in the format tested, the hydrocyclone is not a suitable emergency water treatment option.