Lagrangian Actinometry for UV Disinfection Applications Involving Low-Transmittance Liquids

Ultraviolet photoreactors are commonly used to disinfect drinking water and wastewater. Recently these reactors have been proposed for treating liquid foods such as dairy products, which are much more opaque. The performance of a UV reactor is related to the distribution of UV dose delivered by the reactor. UV-sensitive microspheres have recently been demonstrated as a way to quantify the UV dose distribution in conventional reactors, but have never been used in liquid foods, which present new challenges. This project is designed to test the use of microspheres as a way to measure the UV dose distribution in liquid foods. This method will be applied to the industry-standard laboratory reference apparatus, the collimated beam, and to two custom reactors designed for treating opaque fluids. The aim is to test the applicability of these microspheres to this new regime, and to test the performance of the industry standard lab device and the new reactors. If the microspheres prove to be a practical method for quantifying dose, it will provide a new tool for the industry partner to use in reactor development. Testing the prototype reactors will provide the industry partner with previously unavailable quantification of the performance of these reactors and enable the future development of commercial reactors for application to liquid foods.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Ajay K. Ray

Student:

Eric Cox

Partner:

Trojan Technologies

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

Western University