Mercury-free Lamp Developed for Water Purifiers
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Technology
The use of ultraviolet lamps in water purifiers is common but the presence of mercury in these lamps could be potentially hazardous. Now a group of Indian scientists has developed a mercury-free ultraviolet lamp that can be used in water purifiers.
By Dr. Vaishali Lavekar
The new mercury-free ultraviolet lamp. Image source: India Science Wire
Scientists have engineered an optimized dielectric discharge based mercury-free Vacuum UV/UV light source for water sterilization. The lamp can produce desired level of wavelengths for deactivation of bacteria within ten seconds without the use of mercury.
The lamp has been developed by scientists from two CSIR labs - Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CEERI), Pilani, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur- working along with Birla Institute of Scientific Research (BISR), Jaipur.
In addition to being mercury-free, the lamp has a filament-less light source and there are no end sleeves. Since it uses dielectric-barrier discharge or DBD source, start-up time is negligible. It has broader wavelength coverage due to dimer radiations and medium pressure.
The new mercury-free ultraviolet lamp.
"We have engineered an optimized dielectric discharge based mercury-free VUV/UV light source with a novel structural design that produces strong spectral bands peaking at wavelengths 253 nanometer and 172 nanometer along with a weak band peaking at wavelength 265 nanometer "
Naturally available water may contain pathogenic organisms and toxic compounds. UV radiation is preferable for water purification over chemical treatment. UV radiation is widely used for water sterilization as it does not create any byproduct during treatment and does not alter the taste of water. It also does not eliminate minerals. But it has several disadvantages which include start-up time, filament failure, sleeve breakage, dimensional restrictions and non-reparability. Mercury containing UV-lamps generate a considerable amount of toxic mercury waste at the end of their life as a typical UV lamp contains 20 to200 mg of mercury.
Read full article: India Science Wire
Read paper ' Dielectric Barrier Discharge based Mercury-free plasma UV-lamp for efficient water disinfection' HERE
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Taxonomy
- Drinking Water Security
- Treatment
- Drinking Water Treatment
- UV Disinfection
- Technology
- Drinking Water Managment
- Drinking Water
- water treatment
- Disinfection