What is Water Disinfection

Disinfection, whether it refers to water or otherwise, is defined as a procedure to eliminate or kill microorganisms or deactivate unwanted viruses. In other words, the term disinfection is a generic term that refers to any procedure aimed at reducing bacteria, viruses and protozoa.

Disinfection technologies

There are many technologies for water disinfection. The first of these is chemical disinfection. There is a wide variety of products that can be used. Among the most common are chlorine and chloramine.

In addition to chlorination, one of the most common chemical disinfection techniques is the addition of ozone to water. Although this technology is part of the chemical disinfection family, it is very different since ozone is a very volatile oxidizing agent, which is why it must be created on site by an ozone generator.

  • If you are curious to know more about the ozonation process, we invite you to read this article.

As mentioned above, there are not only chemical disinfection techniques. There are also physical disinfection techniques. As far as physical disinfection is concerned, we can think of UV irradiation.

Since UV irradiation is a complex technology and this article is not intended to define how it works, we refer you to this article to learn more about how it works, its capabilities, its advantages/disadvantages and the costs associated with it: Faire la lumière sur la désinfection UV

In addition to these techniques, there are also physico-chemical techniques for water disinfection. Electrodeionization, an ion exchange technique, is part of the physicochemical disinfection group. Better known under the terms EDI or CEDI, these technologies work thanks to the emission of an electric current allowing the production of pure water.

in FAQ
Free Chlorine, Combined Chlorine, or Total Chlorine: What are the Differences?
The use of chlorine for water disinfection results in the separation of chlorine into three categories. Free chlorine, combined chlorine and total chlorine.