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Disinfection
• Process to destroy disease-causing organisms
or pathogens in the water
Water Treatment Process
• Physical: Boiling, ultraviolet, coagulation,
Disinfection flocculation, sedimentation, filtration
KNS 3233 Water and Wastewater Engineering • Biological: natural die-off
• Chemical: chlorine, chlorine dioxide, ozone
Dr Leonard Lim
• Chemical addition of chlorine to ensure
Department of Civil Engineering
Faculty of Engineering pathogen-free water; oxidant and odour
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Primary Disinfection Methods Chlorination

LRV: log10 reduction value • Chlorine is injected into the water supply system to
obtain the desired level of chlorine (2 ppm) in the water
• When in contact, chlorine oxidizes organic matter and in
turn reduced to inactive chlorides
• Chlorine gas is very soluble in water and rapidly forms
hypochlorous acid (HOCl) through hydrolysis
Cl2 + H2O ↔ HOCl + H+ + Cl-
• The hypochlorous acid itself ionizes to hypochlorite ions
(OCl-) and hydrogen ions
HOCl ↔ OCl- + H+ {OCl- < HOCl}

WHO (2011) Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality

Chlorine Injection Chlorine species and pH

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Chlorination (cont’d)
• Maintain residual chlorine to eliminate
potential health hazard
• However, chlorine may also combine with
synthetic organics to form dangerous
halogenated compounds such as
trihalomethane and chloroform
• One alternative is flouride, at certain
concentration, can help to prevent dental
decay in children and young adults
Solution
Calculate the chlorine dosage
Since 1 mg/L = 1 g/m3
Chlorine dosage = 49.9 kg/d x (1000 g/kg) / (37850 m3/d)
= 1.32 mg/L
Calculate the chlorine demand
Chlorine demand = chlorine dosage – chlorine residual
= 1.32 mg/L – 0.55 mg/L
= 0.77 mg/L
Solution
(a) Compute the weight of calcium hypochlorite
powder needed
Weight = (190 L x 1.0 kg/L x 0.02)/0.70
= 5.42 kg
(b) Compute the volume of 2 % hypochlorite solution
needed
2 % solution = 20000 mg/L = 20 g/L
20000 mg/L (V) = (55 mg/L) (60600 L)
V = 167 L
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Calculation
A water treatment plant uses 49.9 kg/d of
chlorine to treat 37850 m3/d of water. The
residual chlorine after 30 minutes contact time
is 0.55 mg/L. Determine the chlorine dosage and
chlorine demand of water.
Calculation
Calcium hypochlorite (commercial high-test calcium
hypochlorite, HTH) containing 70 % available chlorine is
used for disinfection of a new main. (a) Calculate the
weight of dry hypochlorite powder needed to prepare a
2 % hypochlorite solution in a 190 L container. (b) The
volume of the new main is 60600 L. How much of the 2
% hypochlorite solution will be used with a feed rate of
55 mg/L of chlorine?
Breakpoint Chlorination
• When the molar ratio of chlorine to ammonia is greater
than 1.0, there is a reduction of chlorine and oxidation of
ammonia (NH4+)
• A substantially complete redox process occurs at 2:1 ratio:
ammonium ions disappear and excess free chlorine
residual – breakpoint phenomenon
• Cl reacts with Fe, H2S, organics - oxidize ammonia (5 peak)
- destroy chloramines NHmCln(5-7.6) - free chlorine (7.6 bp)
• Breakpoint chlorination can be used as a means of
ammonia nitrogen removal from waters
2NH3 + 3HOCl ↔ N2 ↑ + 3H+ + 3Cl- + 3H2O
or 2NH3 + 3Cl2 ↔ N2 ↑ + 6HCl
NH3 + 4Cl2 + 3H2O ↔ NO3- + 9H+ + 8Cl-
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Breakpoint Chlorination Curve Breakpoint Chlorination (cont’d)

• In practice, the breakpoint does not occur at Cl2:NH4+
mass ratio of 10:1 and mass dose ratio of 15:1 or 20:1 is
applied.
• McKee et al. (1960) developed the relationship of
available chlorine in the form of dichloramine to free
available chlorine in the form of monochloramine:

𝐴= ⁄ −1 {pH ↓, M and A ↑}
A: ratio of available chlorine in di- to monochloramine
M: molar ratio of Cl2 added to ammonia-N present
B = 1- 4Keq[H+], Keq = 6.7 x 105 L/mol at 25 oC

Calculation Solution
The treated water has pH of 7.4, a temperature of 25
oC, and a free chlorine residual of 1.2 mg/L. Chloramine

is planned to be used in the distribution system. How

much ammonia is required to keep the ratio of
dichloramine to monochloramine of 0.15, assuming all
residuals are not dissipated yet.

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Calculation Solution
A water treatment plant has a chlorination capacity of
500 kg/d and is considering the switch to using chlorine
dioxide for disinfection. The existing chlorinator would
be employed to generate chlorine dioxide. Determine
the theoretical amount of chlorine dioxide that can be
generated and the daily requirement of sodium
chloride.

Disinfection Kinetics, k CT Value

• The rate of microorganism destruction or natural die-
off (Chick’s law) is of first-order chemical reaction
ln(N/N0) = -kt
or -dN/dt = kt
• For k influenced by temperature
k’T = k’20ϴ(T-20)
• For changing concentration of disinfectant
Cntp = constant, evolved to C x T, CT
tp: time required to produce a constant % of kill
or die-off (log removal)
n: coefficient of dilution
• CT value refers to the value of disinfectant content or
disinfectant residual (C (mg/L)) multiplied by the
contact time, T (min)
• Indicator of the effectiveness of the disinfection
process, depending on pH and temperature to
remove or inactivate the Giardia lamblia (protozoa)
and viruses which could pass through the water
treatment process
• Achieve 99.9% (3 log) Giardia lamblia and 99.99% (4
log) virus removal, 5 NTU

Contact Time
• Time between application point and point of residual
measured or effective detention time (correction from
hydraulic residence time (HRT))
• Tpipe = Vint/Qpeakh
• In distribution pipelines, all the water passing through
the pipe is assumed to have detention time = HRT, i.e.
T = 100% of the time the water remains in the pipe
• Due to short circuiting in tanks, Ttank should be
determined from tracer studies aka T10 = (T10/T)xV/Q
• T10 is the time needed for 10% of the water to pass
through the basin or reservoir; 90% of the water (and
microorganisms in the water) will be exposed to
disinfectant in the disinfection contact chamber

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Calculation Solution
A water system pumps its raw water from a remote
Calculate CTcal for the pipe
lake. No filtration is required due to good water quality.
Chlorine is dosed at the pumping station near the lake. Q = 0.02 m3/s = 0.02 m3/s x 60 s/min
The peak pumping rate is 0.02 m3/s. The distance from = 1.2 m3/min
the pumps to the storage reservoir (tank) is 1000 m
with a transmission pipe of 25.4 cm diameter. The
T = πr2L/Q = 3.14 (0.127m)2(1000)/1.2 m3/min
chlorine residual at the outlet of the tank is 1.0 mg/L (C = 42 min
for the tank). The T10 for the tank is 88 min at the peak CTcal (pipe) = 42 Cp (residual chlorine at the end
flow rate determined by a tracer study. Assuming the
of the pipe)
service connection to the first customer is negligible,
determine the minimum chlorine residue required at Calculate the CTcal for the tank, CTcal (tank)
the inlet of the tank (C at the pipe) to meet Gardia 3- CTcal (tank) = 1.0 mg/L x 88 min = 88 (mg/L)min
log removal at 5 oC and pH 7.0.

Find CT99.9 for Gardia removal Ozonation

At water temperature of 5 oC, pH 7 and residual chlorine
of 1.0 mg/L (from table CT values for 99.9% (3 log)
inactivation of Gardia lambia)
CT99.9 = 149 (mg/L)min
Calculate chlorine residue required at the end of the pipe
(tank inlet), Cp
CTcal (pipe) + CTcal (tank) = CT99.9
(42 min) Cp (mg/L) + 88 (mg/L)min = 149 (mg/L) min
Cp = 1.45 mg/L (minimum required)
• Ozone (O3) - blue or colourless unstable gas
(pungent odour) at the temperature and
pressure encountered in water and
wastewater treatment processes
• Powerful oxidizing agent
• utilizes ozone to oxidize the readily oxidizable
matters including microorganisms
• rapid reaction and effective
• expensive
• explosion hazard

Ozonation (cont’d)
• Ozone is an allotrope of oxygen and is generated by an
electrical discharge to split the stable oxygen-oxygen
covalent bond
3O2 + energy ↔ 2O3
• Solubility of ozone in water (Henry’s law)
H = (1.29 x 106/T) – 3271
• Ozone generator from air: 1-2% (w) ozone
• Residual ozone in water: 0.1 to 2 g/m3
• Decays rapidly

• UV: destroys microorganisms using short wavelength (<

400 nm)

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Thank You