Dechlorination of Water Using UV Light

For more than 100 years, chlorine has been utilised as the most common disinfectant for water processes. It is easy to produce, inexpensive and aggressively disinfects most micro-organisms. Industrial users commonly dose chlorine within their manufacturing processes, either to secure the water supply or as a CIP chemical for process equipment.

For critical applications, such as the production of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, microelectronics and power generation, where inorganic quality needs to be of the highest standard, RO is combined with Electro-deionisation (EDI) as common practice to guarantee sub-ppm levels of salts as measured by the water's resistivity. While RO and EDI are stable technologies requiring minimal operator maintenance compared to traditional cation / anion ion-exchange beds, they do need protection from oxidising species which will affect both performance and lifespan. For this reason, the removal of free chlorine prior to RO and EDI is very important.

There have been two traditional methods for eliminating chlorine prior to RO and EDI: Activated Carbon Filtration (ACF) and Sodium Meta-Bisulphite dosing (SMB). Both methods are well proven but, while offering secure chlorine removal, exhibit certain properties and operating limitations which can impact a water treatment process. These can lead to increased bio-burden and higher operating costs (chemicals, water, operator labour) which are not ideal, especially in hygienic processes such as the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and beverages.

This webinar focuses on identifying the benefits of using Ultra Violet (UV) light as a de-chlorination technology, which would be able to replace ACF / SMB and deliver equal or better de-chlorination performance without the downsides associated with these traditional technologies.