Solar fecal coliform disinfection in awastewater treatment plant by oxidation processes: Kinetic analysis as a function of solar radiation

The final step in the treatment of municipal wastewater is disinfection, which is required to inactivate microorganisms that have survived after treatment. Chlorine and chloramines are widely used disinfectants in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP); however, the use of chlorine as a disinfectant presents several problems. In the present research, solar disinfection and photocatalytic disinfection processes have been applied to inactivate the fecal coliform microorganisms that are present in municipal wastewater treated by activated sludge in a WWTP. A 2 x 3 x 2 factorial design was applied. The first factor was the process: solar disinfection or photocatalysis; the second was initial pH: 5, 7.5 and 9; the third was the presence or absence of a H₂O₂ dose of 1 mMol added at the beginning of the process. The data from experimentation were compared to predictions from different inactivation kinetic models (linear, linear + shoulder, linear + tail, Weibull and biphasic). The results show that H₂O₂ addition plays an important role in the process and that disinfection does not always follow a linear reaction model. When related to radiation, it becomes clear that the accumulated radiation dose, rather than the time, should be considered the most important factor in the solar disinfection process.