Biodosimetry – how to validate disinfection by UV

Company: Airwatec is specialized in industrial engineering in the field of filtration and purification of air and water. The company manufactures and markets, among other things, UV filters and water purifiers for domestic and industrial use. It has an R&D department which internally develops processes to meet different user requirements.

Problem: Ultraviolet water treatment systems are increasingly used to produce drinking water in Europe. A direct measurement of the performance of UV disinfection systems is not trivial, seeing that the UV dose received by the water to be treated depends on many factors such as the power of the lamp, the geometry of the reactor or the composition of the water to be treated.

CRA action: In order to guarantee the quality of its products and study the impact of adaptations to its UV reactors, CEBEDEAU has developed a device to conduct performance tests via biodosimetry. These tests consist in measuring the quantity of inactivated pathogens as they pass through the reactor. Using a reference curve expressing the germicidal effect as a function of the UV dose received, it is possible to determine the effective dose supplied by the system and therefore the performance of the reactor tested. This performance is expressed in relation to the maximum flow rate allowed to have a fluence (UV dose) high enough to consider the water drinkable (a dose of 400 J / m² is generally necessary for certification in drinking water).

Industrial benefits: The biodosimetry test developed is used to validate and guarantee the effectiveness of devices regardless of the field of application (disinfection, drinking water, agriculture, etc.).
Airwatec now has acces to a system to determine the disinfection performance of its devices (prototypes and commercial) and regularly calls on the services of CEBEDEAU.

 

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