Disinfection of Water by Adsorption with Electrochemical Regeneration

Arvia®, a spin-out company of University of Manchester, UK is commercialising a water treatment technology for the removal of low concentrations of organics from water. This technology is based on the adsorption of organics onto graphite based adsorbents coupled with their electrochemical regeneration in a simple electrochemical cell. In this paper, the potential of the process to adsorb microorganisms and electrochemically disinfect them present in water has been demonstrated. Bench scale experiments have indicated that the process of adsorption using graphite adsorbents with electrochemical regeneration can be used for water disinfection effectively. The most likely mechanisms of disinfection of water through this process include direct electrochemical oxidation and electrochemical chlorination.




References:
[1] Metcalf and Eddy., (2003). Wastewater Engineering, Treatment and
Reuse. 4th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
[2] WHO, (1992). Our planet, our health. Report of WHO Commission on
Health and Environment. World Health Organization, Geneva.
[3] Eccleston, K.T., Brown, N.W., Roberts, E.P.L., and Richards, J.L.,
(2009). Adsorbents for treating contaminated liquids. US Patent
2009/0321361 A1.
[4] Brown, N.W., and Roberts, E.P.L., (2007). Electrochemical pretreatment
of effluents containing chlorinated compounds using an
adsorbent. Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, 37 (11), pp. 1329-1335.
[5] Hussain, S.N., (2012). Wastewater treatment by adsorption using
graphite adsorbents with electrochemical regeneration, PhD thesis,
University of Manchester.