
Disinfection of Water and Wastewater
- Wastewater Disinfection. There are a number of chemicals and processes that will disinfect wastewater, but none are universally applicable.
- Water Disinfection. Disinfection is usually the final stage in the water treatment process in order to limit the effects of organic material, suspended solids and other contaminants.
- Summary. ...
What is the best method for disinfection of water?
The woman, named Tanya, revealed that she places a small garbage bin into her standard mop bucket. She adds water to the mop bucket, and a mixture of detergent and boiling water to the smaller trash can inside. She then rings the mop out into the mop bucket, but dips it back into the clean mixture of soap and water.
What are the steps in waste water treatment?
- Stage One — Bar Screening.
- Stage Two — Screening.
- Stage Three — Primary Clarifier.
- Stage Four — Aeration.
- Stage Five — Secondary Clarifier.
- Stage Six — Chlorination (Disinfection)
- Stage Seven — Water Analysis & Testing.
- Stage Eight — Effluent Disposal.
What is removed during primary wastewater treatment?
The initial and primary water treatment process removes large matter from wastewater while the secondary treatment will remove smaller particles already dissolved or suspended. Sedimentation and filtration are the processes involved in the primary treatment method while biological breakdown occurs through aerobic or anaerobic units in secondary processes.
What is disinfection and methods of disinfection of water?
- Alcohol
- Chlorine and chlorine compounds
- Formaldehyde
- Glutaraldehyde
- Hydrogen peroxide
- Iodophors
- Ortho-phthalaldehyde (OPA)
- Peracetic acid
- Peracetic acid and hydrogen peroxide
- Phenolics

What is a disinfection process?
Disinfection describes a process that eliminates many or all pathogenic microorganisms, except bacterial spores, on inanimate objects (Tables 1 and 2). In health-care settings, objects usually are disinfected by liquid chemicals or wet pasteurization.
What is disinfection treatment?
Killing, removal, or deactivation of harmful microorganisms can be referred to as disinfection. Destruction or deactivation of pathogenic microorganisms results in stopping their reproduction and growth. People may fall ill by consuming the contaminated water containing the pathogenic microorganisms.
Why disinfectants are used in wastewater treatment?
The disinfection of potable water and wastewater provides a degree of protection from contact with pathogenic organisms including those causing cholera, polio, typhoid, hepatitis and a number of other bacterial, viral and parasitic diseases.
Why is disinfection of wastewater necessary?
Why Do We Need Disinfection? Disinfection of drinking water and wastewater is critical to the protection of public health. All water and wastewater systems should use some form of disinfection process to remove or inactivate microorganisms (pathogens) that can cause disease in humans and animals.
What is the process of removing pathogenic microorganisms from water?
Water disinfection means the removal, deactivation or killing of pathogenic microorganisms. Microorganisms are destroyed or deactivated, resulting in termination of growth and reproduction. When microorganisms are not removed from drinking water, drinking water usage will cause people to fall ill. Sterilization is a process related to disinfection.
Why does disinfection occur?
Disinfection commonly takes place because of cell wall corrosion in the cells of microorganisms, or changes in cell permeability, protoplasm or enzyme activity (because of a structural change in enzymes). These disturbances in cell activity cause microorganisms to no longer be able to multiply.
What happens during sterilization?
However, during the sterilization process all present microorganisms are killed, both harmful and harmless microorganisms. Media. Disinfection can be attained by means of physical or chemical disinfectants. The agents also remove organic contaminantsfrom water, which serve as nutrients or shelters for microorganisms.
What happens when you oxidize disinfectant?
This will cause the microorganisms to die out. Oxidizing disinfectants also demolish organic matter in the water, causing a lack of nutrients. More information about the effects of detergent pollution in freshwaterecosystems.
What is the final step to reduce pathogenic microorganisms in drinking water?
Chemical inactivation of microbiological contamination in natural or untreated water is usually one of the final stepsto reduce pathogenic microorganisms in drinking water. Combinations of water purification steps (oxidation, coagulation, settling, disinfection, filtration) cause (drinking) water to be safe after production.
Can bacteria be in water?
Bacteria can remain in the water after the first disinfection step or can end up in the water during backflushing of contaminated water (which can contain groundwater bacteria as a result of cracks in the plumbing). Disinfection mechanism.
Do disinfectants kill bacteria?
Disinfectants should not only kill microorganisms. Disinfectants must also have a residual effect, which means that they remain active in the water after disinfection. A disinfectant should prevent pathogenic microorganisms from growing in the plumbing after disinfection, causing the water te be recontaminated.
What is tertiary wastewater treatment?
In tertiary treatment, harmful microbiological matter is rendered killed or inactive so that it will not cause sickness to those organisim that encounter it . These wastewater treatment methods, are coagulation and disinfection respectively. Each of these processes has multiple ways that they can be accomplished, ...
What happens to wastewater before it can be discharged into the body of water?
Before the treated water can be discharged into any body of water, the microbiological contaminants need to be inactivated or killed.
How does chlorine kill organisms?
Chlorine is a toxic agent to biological organisms and kills them by oxidation. It penetrates the surface of pathogens and once inside, begins to interact with intracellular enzymes and proteins, rendering them nonfunctional. The micro-organism will either die or fail to reproduce.
What is the difference between primary and tertiary treatment?
However, primary treatment and tertiary are critical to the overall process. In the primary treatment process solids are reduced to a large extent. Without this step, subesequent treatment would be less effective. In tertiary treatment, harmful microbiological matter is rendered killed or inactive so that it will not cause sickness ...
What is EC process?
The EC process is also able to target multiple contaminants using a single system and in certain cases with a single treatment pass. Its lack of typical chemical addition, produces smaller volumes of sludge that are typically non-hazardous, easily dewatered, and less expensive to process and dispose of.
Is chlorine a disinfectant?
Chlorine is quite volatile, and can result in disinfection by-products (DBPs) that can be harmful to humans, animals and aquatic life. It requires careful handling to be shipped, stored, and used safely. Viruses, Giardia lamblia, and cryptosporidium are unaffected by chlorine disinfection treatment.
Is chlorine a good oxidizing agent?
In addition, because it is such a powerful oxidizing agent, it can be quite effective at rendering large quantities of harmful micro-organisms inert with suitable reaction time.
When undertaking an assessment of the real cost of employing any given method of wastewater disinfection, it is necessary to
When undertaking an assessment of the real cost of employing any given method of wastewater disinfection, it is necessary to consider both human and environmental risks, which may be tangible and/or intangible.
How does membrane technology disinfect wastewater?
Membrane technologies disinfect treated wastewater by physically filtering out micro-organisms. This disinfection process does not require the addition of reactive chemicals and as such, no toxic disinfection by-products are produced.
What is the most common method of disinfection in Victoria?
The majority of municipal wastewater plants in Victoria currently use detention lagoons for disinfection. Approximately 10 percent of plants use UV as the preferred method of disinfection. A smaller percentage of plants chlorinate; however, a number of these operations disinfect large volumes of wastewater. A small number of municipal plants do not disinfect their wastewater before discharging it to surface waters.
What is UV disinfection?
The disinfection of treated wastewater via ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a physical process that principally involves passing a film of wastewater within close proximity of a UV source (lamp). The efficiency of UV disinfection depends on the physical and chemical water quality characteristics of the wastewater prior to disinfection. With a better quality of wastewater comes a more efficient UV disinfection process.
What is chlorine used for?
Chlorine is used to disinfect wastewater in either gaseous form (Cl2), or as hypochlorite salts. All forms of chlorine react with water to produce hypochlorous acid (HOCl), which rapidly dissociates to form the hypochlorite ion according to the following reaction:
What is reclaimed water?
Reclaimed water (that is, appropriately treated wastewater) is increasingly regarded as a valuable resource that can be utilised by agricultural, industrial and municipal sectors - rather than as a waste requiring disposal. While it should be viewed as a resource, reclaimed water still needs to be used in a safe and sustainable manner that is consistent with Victorian and national requirements.
Why is microfiltration important?
In terms of effectiveness and reliability, microfiltration is generally the preferred method of disinfection where there is a high risk of exposure to treated wastewater by humans and/or stock. This is due to its ability to reliably reduce numbers of all four pathogen groups to very low levels relative to other methods. However, the high cost associated with microfiltration reduces its practicability where there is a low risk of reclaimed water exposure to humans and/or stock.
