Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 5, 2026
09:13
Experimental Multiscale Methodology for Predicting Material Fouling Resistance
1.1K
Validation of a simple method for predicting the disinfection performance in a flow-through contactor
Valentin Pfeiffer1, Benoit Barbeau1
1Industrial NSERC Chair on Drinking Water, Civil, Geological and Mining Engineering Dept., Polytechnique Montreal, CP 6079, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3C 3A7.
Water Research
|December 11, 2013
Summary
The new Partially Segregated (Pseg) method accurately predicts disinfection performance in water treatment, outperforming older methods like T10 and Extended T10 under various conditions.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Engineering
- Water Treatment Technology
- Disinfection Byproducts
Background:
- The T10 method, despite its widespread use in North America for disinfection performance calculation, has known shortcomings.
- Existing alternative methods and recent United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) suggestions like Extended T10 and Extended CSTR aim to improve inactivation calculations in ozone contactors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a novel disinfection performance calculation method that fully accounts for the hydraulic behavior within water treatment contactors.
- To compare the predictive accuracy of the new method against established and proposed methods under diverse operating conditions.
Main Methods:
- Two hydraulic models, Plug Flow with Dispersion and N-CSTR, were fitted using tracer test data from four water treatment plants and a pilot-scale contactor.
- A new method, termed Partially Segregated (Pseg), was developed based on the N-CSTR model.
- Performance predictions from T10, Extended T10, Extended CSTR, Segregated Flow Analysis (SFA), and Pseg methods were compared against each other and experimental data from a chlorine pilot contactor for Escherichia coli inactivation.
Main Results:
- The T10 and Extended T10 methods demonstrated significant over- and under-estimations of inactivation.
- The Segregated Flow Analysis (SFA) method overestimated inactivation, particularly under high disinfectant decay conditions.
- Both the Extended CSTR and the newly developed Pseg methods provided accurate and conservative predictions across all tested scenarios.
Conclusions:
- The Partially Segregated (Pseg) method, based on the N-CSTR model, offers a reliable and conservative approach for calculating disinfection performance.
- The Pseg method effectively incorporates hydraulic behavior, leading to more accurate inactivation predictions compared to traditional and other advanced methods.
- A simplified implementation procedure for the Pseg method is proposed for practical application in disinfection performance calculations.
Keywords:
Chlorine contactorDisinfection calculation methodEscherichia coli inactivationN-CSTR modelSegregated Flow AnalysisT10 methodMore Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
01:21Design Example: Creating a Hydraulic Model of a Dam Spillway
980
Scaled hydraulic models of dam spillways provide a practical way to replicate and study the intricate flow dynamics of these structures. Often built to a 1:15 ratio, these models allow for observing critical water behavior, such as velocity distribution, flow patterns, and energy dissipation.
980
01:28Pipe Flowrate Measurement: Problem Solving
904
A spray tank system is engineered to uniformly distribute a pest-control liquid across plants by using a pressurized mechanism. The tank, pressurized to 150 kPa, holds the pesticide at a height of 0.80 meters. Liquid flows from the tank through a 1.9 meter pipe with a diameter of 0.015 meters, angled at 0.698 radians, ultimately reaching a 0.007 meter nozzle that sprays the pesticide. Accurate calculation of the system's flow rate is crucial to ensure uniform application, and this is achieved...
904