Development and evaluation of an autonomous and portable solar water disinfection reactor based on TiO2 supported films

Abstract

The lack of drinkable water in rural areas or in places affected by natural disasters, motivated us to develop an efficient way to obtain drinking water. In this work we will present the development of an autonomous and portable water purification plant, based on a supported TiO2 film reactor, to promote the photocatalytic disinfection of bacteria in water. It is concluded that the supported TiO2 film onto a polyethylene based reactor shows good photocatalytic disinfect water under laboratory conditions and land field experiments. At the laboratory, up to 6 orders of magnitude of E-coli were reduced in less than 30 min, whereas under real conditions, water contaminated with 3480 CFU/100 mL of wild bacteria colonies, the disinfection was reached in less than 15 min. This System could be used in places in which safe drinking water is not available, like in rural areas, or under situations in which access to water through centralized public services are temporarily suspended, as for example after a natural disaster.