Disinfection of a wastewater flow treated by advanced primary treatment using O₃, UV and O₃/UV combinations

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the ozone, UV and O₃/UV processes for the reuse of sewage treatment plant effluent (Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana Azcapotzalco wastewater treatment plant). The ozone/UV process was compared to individual ozone and the UV processes and control parameters were total and fecal coliforms. Different ozone concentrations (6-12 mg O₃/min) and different UV fluencies (6.7-20.12 mJ/cm²) were tested. It is possible to conclude than none of the processes achieved the disinfection levels required to comply with the Mexican standard NOM-003-SEMARNAT-1997. The continuous ozone process offered the lower total and fecal coliforms reductions, while UV light resulted a disinfection agent with higher germicide power than ozone. The maximum logarithmic reduction achieved due to the combined ozone/UV process was of 2.04 for fecal coliforms and of 2.17 for total coliforms. The next 8 combinations showed lower removal efficiencies, but always higher than those obtained with the single ozone or UV processes. The ozone/UV process was highly effective for the disinfection and a synergistic effect was observed.