Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Hons.

)
Water and Waste Water Engineering
-- ECW567 --

Water Treatment Plant - DISINFECTION

Week 6
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lecture, students should be able to:

1. Discuss several method for disinfection process

2. Discuss the residual management from water
treatment system

This learning outcome cover course outcome (CO) and

program outcome (PO):
CO2 - Evaluate the performance of water system to comply with
environmental;
PO3 - Design solutions for complex civil engineering problems and design
systems, components or processes that meet specified needs with
appropriate consideration for public health and safety, cultural,
societal, and environmental considerations.
 DISINFECTION
▪ Disinfection – to reduce pathogens (bacteria, viruses and
amoebic cysts) to an acceptable level
▪ Sterilization – destruction of all living organisms (not applicable
for potable water)
▪ Disinfection is usually carried out to remove bacteria, viruses
and amoebic cysts

Disinfectants must posses the following:

▪ Destroy pathogens within a practicable period of time

▪ Neither toxic to humans and domestic animals
▪ Dispensable (in term of cost and safe) and easy to store,
transport, handle and apply
▪ Continuously can be disinfected water to provide reasonable
residual protection against possible recontamination before
use by the consumer
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Typical disinfectants:

1. Chlorination (will be discuss in this lecture)

2. Chlorine dioxide
3. Ozonation
4. Ultraviolet radiation
5. Advanced Oxidation Process (AOPs)

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 1. CHLORINATION
• WHY Chlorine?
• Widely use, effective at low concentration, cheap, form
residual if applied more
• Chlorine is applied as; either gas (Cl2) or powder
(Ca(Ocl)2) – Hypochlorite
• Strong oxidizing agent – oxidizes enzymes of microbial
cells which require for metabolic process, thus,
destroying/distorting the microbial cells
• Chlorine gas react with water to form HYPOCHLOROUS
ACID (HOCl) + HYDROCHLORIC ACID (HCl)
𝐶𝑙2 + 𝐻2 𝑂 → 𝐻𝑂𝐶𝑙 + 𝐻𝐶𝑙
Hypochlorous acid dissociates
to hypochlorite ion & function 𝐻𝑂𝐶𝑙 ↔ 𝐻 + + 𝑂𝐶𝑙 −
of pH
𝐻𝑂𝐶𝑙 > 𝐻 + by 80 times
 Chlorine demand
• When added in water – reacts with organic and
inorganic impurities
• The amount of chlorine utilized – known as chlorine
demand
• Remaining of chlorine – available residual chlorine,
which serves as disinfectant to kill the pathogens

𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝐶ℎ𝑙𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑒 = 𝐷𝑜𝑠𝑎𝑔𝑒 − 𝐷𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑑

Amount of chlorine Amount of chlorine Amount of chlorine

remaining after added needed to oxidize
oxidation materials (reaction)
Fig 6-41 Breakpoint chlorination
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 2. Chlorine Dioxide (ClO2)
▪ Very strong oxidant.
▪ It is formed on-site by combining chlorine and sodium
chlorite.
▪ Often used as a primary disinfectant, inactivating the
bacteria and cysts, followed by the use of chloramine as a
distribution system disinfectant
▪ Does not maintain a residual long enough to be useful as a
distribution-system disinfectant.
▪ Does not react with precursors to form DBPs (disinfection
byproducts)

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 3. Ozonation
▪ Ozone (O3) is a pungent-smelling, unstable gas.
▪ It is generated at the point of use
▪ It is a powerful oxidant, more than hypochlorous acid
▪ More effective than chlorine in destroying viruses and cysts
▪ Has the advantage of not forming THMs (trihalomethanes)
▪ It will not persist in water (similar to chlorine dioxide)
decaying back to oxygen in minutes
▪ Hence, usually added to the raw water or between the
sedimentation basins and filter for primary disinfection
▪ More expensive than chlorine

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 4. Ultraviolet Radiation
▪ Disinfects water by rendering pathogenic organisms
incapable of reproducing.
▪ Accomplished by disrupting the genetic material in cells
▪ water must be free of turbidity and lamps free of slime
and precipitates
▪ No residual protection

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Fig 6-42 UV disinfection system schematic

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 5. ADVANCED TREATMENT PROCESSES
Advanced Oxidation Processes
▪ improved disinfection
▪ oxidize synthetic organic chemicals
▪ taste and odor control
Activated carbon adsorption
▪ Granular (GAC) or powder (PAC)
▪ remove recalcitrant synthetic organic chemicals, THMs, taste and odor
compounds
▪ concern with bacterial growth problems
Membrane process
▪ discriminate on both size and chemistry
▪ selective removal including desalination
▪ Includes Reverse Osmosis (RO), Nano-filtration (NF) (hardness, color and
Disinfection by-product - DBP), Ultrafiltration (UF) (organic materials),
Microfiltration (MF) (microbial removal)
▪ UF ≈ MF, the different is the pore size. Pore UF << MF

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Fig 6-43 Schematic representation of a membrane process

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 RESIDUALS MANAGEMENT

Finished
water

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 Residuals Management – Dewatering

▪ Lagoons : storage or dewatering lagoon (page 357)

▪ Sand-dying beds – spreading the sludge out and letting it
dry (page 358)
▪ Freeze treatment (page 360)
▪ Centrifugation – apply centrifugal force to speed-up the
separation of sludge particles from the liquid (page 361)
▪ Vacuum filtration – vacuum is applied to extract water,
leaving the solids (or filter cake) on the filter medium (page
361)
▪ Continuous belt filter press – bending a sludge cake
contained between two filter belts around a roll introduces
shear and compressive forces in the cake, allowing water
out from the sludge (page 362)
▪ Plate Pressure filters (page 362)

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 Residuals Management – Ultimate Disposal

▪ On-site storage
▪ Land filling
▪ Land application – soil amendment
▪ Reclamation/recycling – new products
▪ Ocean dumping – banned in US

Refer to pages 351 -365 in Introduction to

Environmental Engineering (Davis and Cornwel)
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