Effectiveness of Solar Driven Anodic Oxidation and Uv Methods for Disinfection of Municipal Wastewater in India

Abstract

This paper presents the performance of the two disinfection methods experimented at a pilot scale level as part of an integrated treatment system involving Anaerobic Digestion (UASB Process) followed by the Constructed Wetlands (CW) for municipal wastewater treatment under Indian conditions. The disinfection methods were installed in parallel at a pilot scale levels involving solar driven Anodic Oxidation (AO) and Ultra-violet (UV). The systems were implemented within the Indo-Euro Research Project “SWINGS” at three places in India namely, Aligarh, Kalyani and Amarkantak, with aim to develop / deploy sustainable wastewater management. This study mainly focused on three microbial groups, total coliforms (TC), fecal coliforms (FC) and E-coli. Both the systems, AO and UV were operated at a very less energy demand. This was in the range 0.25 to 0.30 kWh/m3. The energy requirements was met with the help of roof top solar panels. The raw municipal wastewater contained TC, FC and E. coli in the range of 105 to 107 CFU/100ml. It was found that about 3-log unit indicator organisms were removed in the UASB & CWs. The effluent of CWs were equally fed to the two parallel disinfection systems, AO and UV. Results indicate that UV has shown better performance. The final effluent of AO contains average (TC 42.0±39.2, FC 16.1±13.2, E-coli 5.6±6.3) CFU/100 ml whereas UV effluent was TC 6.6±4.1, FC 1.2±1.0, E-coli 0.1 ±0.3 CFU/100 ml. The study concludes that solar driven disinfection systems like AO and UV are very effective for small flow rates and offers a promising way to energy scarce regions or in remote areas.