ULTRAVIOLET DISINFECTION TECHNOLOGY

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Ultraviolet disinfection tech has been the star performer in water treatmnet over the past two decades, due to its ability to provide treatment without the use of harmful chemicals.

UV represents wavelengths that fall between visible light and x-ray on the electromagnetic spectrum. The UV range can be further divided into UV-A, UV-B, UV-C, and Vacuum-UV. The UV-C portion represents wavelengths from 200 nm - 280 nm.

In much the same way that LED's have revolutionized the display and lighting industries, UV-C LED's are set to provide new and improved solutions in both air and water treatment applications. Dual barrier, post-filtration, protection is now available where mercury-based systems could not previously have been conceived.

At AquiSense Technologies, we work with leading UV-C LED manufacturers to evaluate their devices. Using a combination of patented technology and in-depth know-how, we integrate only the best LED devices into products that solve real world problems in water, air and surface applications.

Our products are used by commercial partners across multiple industries. Whether the need is for instant mercury-free disinfection of water or pathogen reduction on surfaces or in air flows, we have solutions available.

www.aquisense.com

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2 Answers

  1. UV treatment is definitely a good option for many water treatment applications, and LED technology greatly improved this kind of treatment. On the other hand, users should not forget that UV, like filtration, treat just the water, only in the point of application , and does not guarantee 100% effectiveness in removing bacteria. So the (few) surviving bacteria can colonize the pipelines downstream to the treatment. Indeed, even if UV can reach 99.99% effectiveness, one surviving bacterium can give rise to biofilm. For this reason it is extremely important to (a) check the effectiveness of UV treatment during the time, (b) periodically clean pipelines (e.g. with chemicals), (c) check the effectiveness of pipeline cleaning. We have already seen such kind of problems in different industries using UV treatment, i.e. bacterial settlement and biofilm growth downstream to UV, due to inappropriate pipeline cleaning. Biofilm monitoring ( http://www.alvim.it ) downstream to the point of application of UV can help to avoid many problems.

    1 Comment

    1. I completely agree Giovanni. You raise some very important points.An additional method used in some applications is the addition of low levels of chlorine to provide a residual in the disinfection system.Another method is to use a second barrier at the point-of-entry or point-of-use to ensure any distribution network issues are deal with.

  2. There certainly should be some vendors of LED thaat could use your services. In the process do you also assist with validation testing such as to German and Austrian standards or to the EPA's UVDGM?

    1 Comment

    1. Hi Bruce!We have completed quite a bit of evaluation work on behalf of many of the UV-C LED device manufacturers, however the bulk of our evaluation work is for our internal benefit. We use it in our UV system product design work to ensure we build the best disinfection systems possible.Our product validations are all completed by 3rd parties in accordance with the target market. UVDGM has a good level of flexibility for us, but some standards like NSF55 is highly restrictive and not ideal for UV-LED systems