Impact/Purpose:

Providing safe drinking water in developing countries is a major critical necessity. In Latin America and the Caribbean, an important percentage of people in rural areas have no access to safe water supplies. This lack of access to safe drinking water is commonly related to poverty. Mexico is not the exception and the lack of safe drinking water affects both urban and rural areas. Diseases caused by potentially waterborne infectious microorganisms and other water contaminants affect around 6.4% of the total population of the country. The most affected population sector by this type of diseases is the rural population, representing around 25.3% of the Mexican population. Solar water disinfection (SODIS) is a simple, environmentally friendly and low cost point-of-use treatment technology for drinking water purification. However, bacterial re-growth after short storage (24 h) of SODIS treated water has been observed. Seeking for improvements of SODIS performance, reduction of irradiation time and avoidance of bacteria re-growth, solar based-Advanced Oxidation Technologies (AOTs), such as solar TiO₂ photocatalysis, are promising enhancements to SODIS. Unfortunately, one of the main problems with the use of conventional TiO₂ for solar applications is its limited capability to absorb only the radiation in the UV range, which is only about 5-8% of the total solar radiation.

Description:

A complete inactivation of the bacteria was achieved when using ENPHOSODIS under solar and visible light at three different NF-TiO2 catalyst concentrations. Under dark conditions, no difference in the bacteria count was observed and no inactivation of E. coli was observed when employing visible light only. pH was an important influence on the bacteria resistence to solar radiation. E. coli was able to survive for longer radiation periods at pH 7 and 7.5 than at lower or higher pH values (i.e., 6, 6.5 and 8). An azo dye, acid orange 24 (AO24), was explored for the development of a UV dosimetric indicator for disinfection. Complete color removal was found to be equivalent to that when water submitted to ENPHOSODIS treatment, under the proposed conditions, will get enough energy to deactivate completely the viable helminth eggs present. Different configurations of immobilized TiO2 photocatalytic reactors were tested under real sun conditions. Experiments under full sun and cloudy conditions showed that these photoreactors are capable of disinfection with an optimum configuration of internal and external coationg along with a compound parabolic collector.

URLs/Downloads:

Final Progress Report

Record Details:

Record Type:PROJECT( ABSTRACT )

Start Date:08/15/2008

Completion Date:08/14/2009

Record ID: 200865

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Related Organizations:

Role :OWNER

Organization Name :NIBEC, SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL AND MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Mailing Address :Shore Road
Newtownabbey
Co. Antrim
BT37 0QB



Role :OWNER

Organization Name :UNIVERSIDAD DE LAS AMÉRICAS-PUEBLA

Citation :Puebla

Project Information:

Approach :

In this study, we proposed to use novel nanotechnological procedures to synthesize visible light activated nitrogen-doped TiO₂ (N-TiO₂) with high surface area and immobilized on appropriate support materials that will be used in novel photocatalytic reactors for water purification in rural zones in Mexico as a case study. In combination with visible light activated TiO₂, we also propose to incorporate in our process the V trough solar collector which has simple geometry and demonstrated in preliminary results performance comparable to other types of solar collectors. Because of its simpler geometry, the V trough solar collector is much less expensive and is attractive to applications is developing countries. We name this overall process for water purification “Enhanced Photocatalytic Solar Disinfection” (ENPHOSODIS). In addition to the synthesis of visible light activated materials, development of solar photocatalytic reactors and evaluation of their efficiency for water treatment in the target rural areas in Mexico, this project will also include obtaining and documenting information about the health, social, and economic effects of consumption of non safe drinking water in a specific rural, isolated zone of Mexico. This will help understand cultural aspects and enhance public awareness among the inhabitants of the zone for implementation of effective technologies for water purification and protection of human health in the region. This will be a case study and the results can be utilized to improve water quality in other developing countries around the world.

Cost :$10,000.00

Research Component :Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development

Approach :

In this study, we proposed to use novel nanotechnological procedures to synthesize visible light activated nitrogen-doped TiO₂ (N-TiO₂) with high surface area and immobilized on appropriate support materials that will be used in novel photocatalytic reactors for water purification in rural zones in Mexico as a case study. In combination with visible light activated TiO₂, we also propose to incorporate in our process the V trough solar collector which has simple geometry and demonstrated in preliminary results performance comparable to other types of solar collectors. Because of its simpler geometry, the V trough solar collector is much less expensive and is attractive to applications is developing countries. We name this overall process for water purification “Enhanced Photocatalytic Solar Disinfection” (ENPHOSODIS). In addition to the synthesis of visible light activated materials, development of solar photocatalytic reactors and evaluation of their efficiency for water treatment in the target rural areas in Mexico, this project will also include obtaining and documenting information about the health, social, and economic effects of consumption of non safe drinking water in a specific rural, isolated zone of Mexico. This will help understand cultural aspects and enhance public awareness among the inhabitants of the zone for implementation of effective technologies for water purification and protection of human health in the region. This will be a case study and the results can be utilized to improve water quality in other developing countries around the world.

Cost :$10,000.00

Research Component :P3 Challenge Area - Water

Approach :

In this study, we proposed to use novel nanotechnological procedures to synthesize visible light activated nitrogen-doped TiO₂ (N-TiO₂) with high surface area and immobilized on appropriate support materials that will be used in novel photocatalytic reactors for water purification in rural zones in Mexico as a case study. In combination with visible light activated TiO₂, we also propose to incorporate in our process the V trough solar collector which has simple geometry and demonstrated in preliminary results performance comparable to other types of solar collectors. Because of its simpler geometry, the V trough solar collector is much less expensive and is attractive to applications is developing countries. We name this overall process for water purification “Enhanced Photocatalytic Solar Disinfection” (ENPHOSODIS). In addition to the synthesis of visible light activated materials, development of solar photocatalytic reactors and evaluation of their efficiency for water treatment in the target rural areas in Mexico, this project will also include obtaining and documenting information about the health, social, and economic effects of consumption of non safe drinking water in a specific rural, isolated zone of Mexico. This will help understand cultural aspects and enhance public awareness among the inhabitants of the zone for implementation of effective technologies for water purification and protection of human health in the region. This will be a case study and the results can be utilized to improve water quality in other developing countries around the world.

Cost :$10,000.00

Research Component :P3 Challenge Area - Materials & Chemistry

Project IDs:

ID Code :SU833942

Project type :EPA Grant