Development of a mercury‐free ultraviolet high‐pressure plasma discharge for disinfection

Ian Mayor-Smith, Michael Templeton

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Ultraviolet (UV) disinfection is a critical and growing application for the disinfec-tion of water. Current UV systems for disinfection applications are designed around the use of Low-Pressure and High-Pressure mercury-based lamps. Increasing demand to reduce and ideally remove the use of mercury requires innovative adaptations and novel approaches to current technology. A potential alternative technology could be Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), with current low efficiencies, high costs and low operating powers, a development gap for a high-power mer-cury source has been identified. A mercury-free tellurium-based high-pressure plasma was developed and assessed. Though relatively low efficiencies were measured compared to current mercury-based technology rapid improvements are likely obtainable. Such an approach enables a novel adaptation to current technology utilising established: manufacturing facilities, approaches of UV system design and validation protocols. As a consequence, it offers the potential for a rapid low-cost transition to mercury-free UV disinfection where no alternative is currently available
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)41-54
    Number of pages14
    JournalWater and Environment Journal
    Volume35
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 7 Nov 2019

    Bibliographical note

    This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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