Design of a cost-effective electrochlorination system for point-of-use water treatment

Bacteriological contamination in drinking water is known to be responsible for the spread of various waterborne diseases. Although chlorine is frequently used as disinfectant in water treatment, low-cost disinfecting technologies in the villages of developing and under-developed countries are not yet successfully implemented. This study contributed in designing a simple and inexpensive water disinfection unit to produce chlorine from the naturally available dissolved chloride of groundwater by electrochlorination, using inert and cheap graphite electrodes. Laboratory-based experiments were performed in both batch and continuous flow reactors to study the effect of time, current, electro charge loading (ECL), and surface area of electrodes in chlorine generation and bacterial inactivation. Controlled experiments in continuous mode in the absence of chlorine further indicated the possibility of partial inactivation of bacteria under the influence of the electric field. Finally, a treatment unit with drilled anodes, and undrilled cathode electrodes, in continuous flow set-up was installed in four schools of four different villages in West Bengal, India. An average residual chlorine concentration and removal efficiency of total coliform in the designed systems were determined as 0.3 +/- 0.07 mg/L, and 98.4% +/- 1.6%, respectively.

Automated summary

This study designed a simple and inexpensive water disinfection unit to produce chlorine from groundwater for bacterial inactivation. Results indicated partial inactivation of bacteria under the influence of the electric field in the absence of chlorine. In practical applications, the system effectively controlled residual chlorine concentration and efficiently removed total coliform.