Quantitative Evaluation of Municipal Wastewater Disinfection by 280 nm UVC LED

UV-LED irradiation has attracted attention in water and wastewater disinfection applications. However, no studies have quantitatively investigated the impact of light intensity on the UV dosage for the same magnitude of disinfection. This study presents a powerful 280 nm UV-LED photoreactor with adjustable light intensity to disinfect municipal wastewater contaminated with E. coli, SARS-CoV-2 genetic materials and others. The disinfection performance of the 280 nm LED was also compared with 405 nm visible light LEDs, in terms of inactivating E. coli and total coliforms, as well as reducing cATP activities. The results showed that the UV dose needed per log reduction of E. coli and total coliforms, as well as cATP, could be decreased by increasing the light intensity within the investigated range (0–9640 µW/cm2). Higher energy consumption is needed for microbial disinfection using the 405 nm LED when compared to 280 nm LED. The signal of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material in wastewater and the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in pure water decreased upon 280 nm UV irradiation.