Ultraviolet (UV) disinfection is becoming increasingly popular as an alternative disinfection technology to chlorination in recent years. In this study, we investigated the photoreactivation of Escherichia coli following medium-pressure (MP) UV disinfection of synthetic water by a bench-scale collimated beam apparatus. The UV doses ranged from 1.6 –19.7 mWs/cm2 and photoreactivation was investigated for 6 hours under fluorescent light. In addition, chloramination was applied after UV disinfection to investigate its ability to control photoreactivation. It was found that photoreactivation occurred for all UV doses tested and the increase in bacteria numbers ranged from 0.04 to 1.35 log10. However, the degree of photoreactivation decreased with increased UV doses. Chloramination experiments revealed that the addition of 0.5 mg/l of monochloramine resulted in suppression of photoreactivation for 1 hour only. An increased monochloramine dose of 1 mg/l was found to prevent photoreactivation for the entire duration of the experiment. The results of this study have shown that photoreactivation occurs even after MP UV disinfection, although it is of a lesser extent at higher UV doses. This study has also established that secondary chloramination can effectively suppress and eliminate photoreactivation with a chloramine dose of 1 mg/l.
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Research Article|
March 01 2006
Photoreactivation of Escherichia coli following medium-pressure ultraviolet disinfection and its control using chloramination
P.H. Quek;
P.H. Quek
1Centre for Water Research, Department of Civil Engineering, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260, Singapore
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J.Y. Hu;
J.Y. Hu
1Centre for Water Research, Department of Civil Engineering, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260, Singapore
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X.N. Chu;
1Centre for Water Research, Department of Civil Engineering, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260, Singapore
E-mail: cvehujy@nus.edu.sg
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Y.Y. Feng;
Y.Y. Feng
1Centre for Water Research, Department of Civil Engineering, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260, Singapore
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X.L. Tan
X.L. Tan
1Centre for Water Research, Department of Civil Engineering, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260, Singapore
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Water Sci Technol (2006) 53 (6): 123–129.
Citation
P.H. Quek, J.Y. Hu, X.N. Chu, Y.Y. Feng, X.L. Tan; Photoreactivation of Escherichia coli following medium-pressure ultraviolet disinfection and its control using chloramination. Water Sci Technol 1 March 2006; 53 (6): 123–129. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2006.184
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