How effective is UV treatment in fresh water?

Shanghai Ocean University, China researchers Jianliang Xiao, Yulin Xu, Lei Hu, Huixian Wu have published a paper, Evaluating the treatment performance of filtration & real-time UV irradiation processes for bacteria and pathogens in fresh ballast water, in the latest issue of Regional Studies in Marine Science*.

The aim of the experiments, funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China, was to find the effects of real-time ultra-violet (UV) irradiation on the survival, activity and diversity of bacterioplankton in fresh water.

The paper discusses how the majority of work in the field had been carried out in seawater or brackish water, and the researchers wanted to understand the impact of post-filtration UV treatment in fresh water environments.

The researchers also noted that earlier research had concentrated on the three indicator bacteria in the D-2 standard (vibrio cholerae, E coli, enterococci) and felt it necessary to study the effect of UV irradiation on bacteria diversity, especially potential pathogenic bacteria in fresh water.

The findings of the research can be found by accessing *Regional Studies in Marine Science.