DISINFECTION

Disinfection
Process of killing pathogenic bacteria
Disinfectants- chemicals used for killing these bacteria
Requirements :
• Kill pathogens; not the consumers
• Effective in wide range of pH
• No toxic by products formation
• Residual effect
 Methods of disinfection

• Minor methods of disinfection

* Boiling of water

* Treatment with lime

* ozone treatment etc.

• Chlorination
Minor methods of disinfection
1. Boiling of water :
Best method to remove existing germs, No residual
effect, Uneconomical for large supply
2. Treatment with Excess lime
Effective in removal bacterial load,No residual power,
causes taste and alkalinity- recarbonation needed
3.Ozone treatment

3O2 Under high electric voltage

2O 3

• Dosage 2-3 ppm

• Advantages • Disadvantage

1. ozone is unstable 1.costly

2. remove colour, odour 2.no residual

3. tasty water 3.less efficient

4.Treatment with Iodine and bromine

• Dosage- about 8ppm

• contact period-5 minutes
• Available in the form of pills
• For smaller plants- army troops, private plants, swimming pools
• Expensive
• Imparts Colour
5.Treatment with ultra-violet rays
• Water should be colorless and turbidity less than 15 mg/l
• Sterilized water is obtained
• Costly
• Smaller plants – hospitals
• No residual power
6.Treatment with Potassium permanganate

• Dosage- 1to 2 mg/l contact period – 4 to 6hr

• Advantage
1. Oxidizes the taste producing organic matter
2. Remove algae, colour and iron
3. Cheap and handy
• Disadvantage
1. Not effective – only 98% bacteria removed
2. Dark brown precipitate on porcelain dish
7. Treatment with silver or Electro Katadyn
process
• Dosage-0.05 to 0.1 mg/l : contact period – 15min to 3hrs
• Advantage
1. Doesn’t impart taste and odour – not harmful
2. Protects from recontamination
• Disavantage
1.Costly
Mechanism of disinfection

1. Damage to cell wall of micro-organisms

2. Alteration of cell wall permeability

3. Precipitation of enzymes and essential proteins and nutrients

4. Damage of colloidal nature

 Chlorination

• No change in pH, cheap, reliable, easy to handle

• Residual effects for long periods
Disadvantage
If used in greater amount - impart bitter and bad
taste
Disinfecting action of chlorine

Cl2 + H2O HOCl + HCl

pH > 5

Hypochlorous acid is unstable Hypochlorous acid

HOCl H+ + OCl-
pH > 8

pH < 7 Hydrogen ions Hypochlorite ions

• Hypochlorous acid is most destructive, about 80 times more effective than
hypochlorite ions

• Free available chlorine- sum of hypochlorous acid, hypochlorite ions and

molecular chlorine

• Chloramines are produced by combining chlorine and ammonia which are

called as combined chlorine
NH₂Cl .. NHCl₂ .. NHCl₃
Free cl2 is 25 times more powerful than chloramines
Chlorine reaction with ammonia

Various Chloramines are produced by combining chlorine and ammonia (combined

chlorine)

NH ₃ + HOCl NH₂Cl + H₂O

Monochloramine → above pH 7.5

NH ₂Cl + HOCl NHCl₂ + H₂O

Dichloramine → pH 5 - 6.5

NHCl₂ + HOCl NHCl₃ + H₂O

Nitrogen trichloramine → pH below 4.4
Dosage

• Amount of chlorine required → organic and inorganic impurities present

• chlorine required in oxidation of these materials before any disinfection →
chlorine demand
• chlorine dosage = chlorine demand residual chlorine
+
• First reacts with inorganic matter like Fe, Mn to form chloride which
has no residual oxidizing power
• Excess chlorines react with ammonia to form chloramines
• Also chlorine react with org matter
• Chlorine demand is combination of orgn and inorg
• Free chlorine kill pathogens.. Combined chlorine germicidal effects
• Chorinated water should reach consumer before 30 min
• Dosage more during monsoon
Residual chlorine
• The free chlorine left when the water reaches the consumers
• 0.2 mg/l
• Optimum dosage of chlorine
• Dosage more during rainy season and epidemics
It takes care of future recontamination of water in distribution system
• Large chlorine residual causes bad taste/odour
• Diff doses added to given sample and observe residual effect after contact
period of 10mins
• Dose which leaves 0.2mg/l is selected
• Depends on ph condition
Break point Chlorination
• The definition of breakpoint chlorination is the point at which the
disinfection demand has been met, or all undesirable contaminants in
the pool have been oxidized.
problems
• Chlorine usage in the treatment of 20,000 cubic meter per day is 8kg/day. The
residual after 10min contact is 0.20mg/l. calculate he dosage in milligram per litre
and chlorine demand of the water
• Water treated per day = 20,000m3
= 20,000 x 103 litres
= 20 Mld
Chlorine consumed per day = 8kg
Chlorine used per litre of water =
= 4 x 10 -4 g/l
= 0.4 mg/l
• Hence the applied chlorine dosage = 0.4mg/l
• Residual chlorine left = 0.2mg/l (given)
• Chlorine demand of water = 0.4 – 0.2
= 0.2mg/l
Various forms in which chlorine can be
applied
1.Use of chlorine as liquid chorine or chlorine gas
• pressure is applied to convert gas in to liquid
• Proper storage is required for gaseous form
• Solution feed chlorinators(liquid chlorine)
• Direct feed chlorinators (chlorine gas)
• No sludge formed
• Exact dosage
• Less space for storage
• Easy transportation
Use of hypochlorite and bleaching powder

• Bleaching powder is Chlorinated lime/ Calcium oxychlorite [CaOCl₂]

• Freshly made – 30% available chlorine
• Both not much preferred because,
• Raise pH value(lime content)
• Contain low amount of chlorine(30%)
White amorphous powder with pungent chlorine smell
Unstable and looses chlorine content
2. Use of hypochlorite and bleaching powder

H₂O
Ca(OCl)2 Ca 2+ + 2OCl-

hypochlorination
pH <7

OCl- + H+ HOCl-
pH > 8
3.Chlorine tablets

• For smaller quantity of water

• Costly
• A single tablet of 0.5 gm is sufficient
for 20 litres of water
4. Chloramines

• Combination of ammonia and chlorine

• Advantage
• Stable compounds
• Very useful when phenols are present in water

• Weak disinfectant(1/25 times that of chlorine) - Higher dosage or

longer contact period essential (1-2 hrs)
5. Chlorine dioxide gas(ClO2)

• 2NaClO2 + Cl2 2 NaCl + 2ClO2 (chlorine dioxide gas)

• treating water with phenolic compounds
• Dosage 0.5 to 1.5 mg/l
• 2.5 times stronger than chlorine
• Costly and unstable – not suitable for
ordinary supply
• Its required to supply water to a population of 20,000 at a
per capita demand of 150 litres per day. The disinfectant
used for chlorination is bleaching powder which contains
30% of available chlorine. Determine how much of bleaching
powder is required annually at the water works, if 0.3ppm of
chlorine dose is required for disinfection.
• Quantity of water to be treated in a day = 20,000 X 150

= 3 X106 litres
• Amount of chlorine required daily = 0.3 X 3 X106
= 0.9 X 106 mg
= 0.9 kg
• Chlorine content is 30% in bleaching powder
• Amount of bleaching powder required daily = 0.9 X 100/30

= 3kg
• Annual consumption of bleaching powder = 3 X365 = 1095 kg
Types of chlorination

1.Plain chlorination
• For clearer water with turbidity less than 20-30 mg/l
• Dosage is 0.5 mg/l of chlorine
• Only chlorine treatment and no other treatment
• Used in emergencies when full fledged treatment cannot be
given
 2. Pre chlorination

• Process of applying chlorine before filtration or even before sedimentation coagulation

• Normal Dosage – 5 to 10 mg/l
• 0.1 to 0.5 mg/l of the residual chlorine should come to filter plant
• Followed by post chlorination
• Reduces bacterial load on filter
• Controls growth of algae
• Reduce quantity of coagulation
Contd..
3. Post chlorination
• Normal chlorination
• Done after all the treatments
• Dosage of chlorine is in such a way that residual chlorine is about 0.1
to 0.2 mg/l
Contd..

4. double chlorination
• Water is chlorinated twice
• Both pre and post chlorination
• Adopted when raw water is highly contaminated and contains large
amount of bacterial life
5. Break point chlorination/free residual
chlorination
• Dose of chlorination beyond which any further addition of chlorine will appear as
free residual chlorine
Generalized curve obtained during breakpoint chlorination
4.Super chlorination
• Adding excess amount of chlorine
• 5-15 mg/l
• In highly polluted waters or during epidemics of water borne diseases
• Necessary to remove excess chlorine by any dechlorination method
5.Dechlorination
• Removing chlorine from water
• Required after super chlorination
• Sufficient residual chlorine should remain in water
• De chlorinating agents are:
• Sulphur dioxide gas
• Activated carbon
• Sodium thiosulphate etc.
Factors affecting bacterial efficiency of
chlorine

• Turbidity ; decreases efficiency

• Metallic compounds ; decreases efficiency
• Ammonia compounds ; decreases efficiency
• pH value of water
• Temperature of water ; Lower temperature efficiency less
• Contact time ;
Dosage
• Normal dosage : 0.3 to 1.1 mg/l
• Residual Chlorine : 0.2 mg/l