Desinfección Solar de Aguas por Fotólisis y Fotocatálisis: Aplicación en Tucumán, Argentina

POWELL, P.; LITTER, M. I.; BLESA, M. A.; APELLA, M. C

Medioambiente en Iberoamérica. Visión desde la Física y la Química en los Albores del Siglo XXI.

Ediciones Gráficas Diputación de Barajoz

Lugar: Barajoz; Año: 2006; p. 725 - 733

Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS) and Solar Heterogeneous Photocatalysis (FHS) are effective, inexpensive and easy to use methods in places that lack water mains and have scant resources. This work reports studies carried out to validate SODIS and FHS technologies for bacterial disinfection. In the latter case, TiO2 was used as a catalyst on different supports like PET bottles and porcelain pearls. Test organisms were total and fecal coliforms, Enterococcus faecalis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Tests were performed both in synthetic water (chemical composition similar to natural water) loaded with coliform bacteria and natural water from several wells in Los Pereyra (Tucumán, Argentina). Both technologies yielded good levels of bacterial removal, and adequate residual protection against microbial growth recovery (especially in synthetic water samples) after 4 h solar irradiation in spring, summer and autumn. Variations in initial pH value, conductivity, dissolved oxygen and bacterial concentration did not change the efficiency of the disinfection process. The main asset of SODIS is its simplicity and that of FHS is its ability to destroy also chemical contaminants. The combined effect of direct (SODIS) and TiO2-mediated attack is conceptually appealing because cell-protection mechanisms may render the bacteria resistant to technologies based on one mechanism only.