UV Disinfection Technology to Ukrainian Wastewater Treatment Plant

Chernihiv's waterworks director, Sergey Shkin, commented that disinfection is necessary to meet Ukrainian bathing water standards and also to prevent effluent with high microbial loads of pathogenic viruses, parasites and bacteria entering the Desna River, which is also the main water supply for many communities downstream, including Kiev.

Chemical disinfection with chlorine was not an option as this could cause disinfection by-products such as trihalomethanes (THMs) and Halogenated Acetic Acids (HAAs), which are produced when chlorine reacts with the organic compounds in wastewater. Furthermore, as chlorine is a dangerous gas, additional safety measures are required to comply with rules for its transport and storage and for worker safety, these all carry additional costs.  These factors, together with the fact that many dangerous bacteria and parasites, such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia, are resistant to chlorine, meant the WWT plant opted for UV technology instead.

Chernihiv waterworks selected two Berson InLine 16000 systems, operating in parallel mode. Each UV chamber is equipped with 12 automatically-wiped medium pressure Multiwave UV lamps and can treat effluent at a flow rate of 2000 m3/h (4000 m3/h in total).  Because of the InLine design of the closed treatment chambers, they are also very compact, allowing them to be installed in a very small building. The incoming effluent is gravity-driven.