Wastewater re-use approval

Advanced UV technology claims to have become the first company in the world to gain formal approval for wastewater re-use applications.

Berson’s InLine+ medium-pressure closed vessel UV systems underwent extensive third-party testing by Carollo Engineers in the US before being formally approved for post-filtration and reverse osmosis applications by the California Department of Public Health (Title-22 validation).

The systems are now validated for wastewater re-use applications in accordance with AwwaRF/NWRI guidelines, which are the only ones offering guidelines on sewage treatment.

This validation opens the door to a greatly expanded use of UV technology in wastewater re-use applications as more and more large-scale re-use projects are considered in water-poor regions of the world, such as Australia, China and Southern Europe.

The most common method of wastewater disinfection for re-use has long been chlorination.

Despite chlorine’s impressive track record, concerns regarding disinfection by-products (DBPs) and, more recently, disinfection performance with respect to pathogen inactivation, are driving the conversion from chlorine disinfection to other disinfection methods such as UV, which does not produce any significant DBPs.

Closed vessel UV systems are easy to install within existing pipework, so there is minimal disruption to plant operation. Day-to-day operation is simple and maintenance is minor.

The only regular requirement is changing the UV lamps and wiper rings once a year.

Berson uses UV sensors to measure how the UV systems are performing.