Diseño de un sistema de desinfección para agua de consumo humano, basado en energía termosolar y luz UV de fuente fotovoltaica, mediante evaluación del parámetro indicador de contaminación microbiana, coliformes totales.

Abstract

A disinfection system was designed for drinking water based on thermal solar energy and Ultraviolet Light (UV) from a photovoltaic source through the evaluation of a parameter which determines the microbial contamination, total coliforms. The system supplies safe water without the need to use of chemical treatments to make water drinkable especially in rural areas where its consumption is inappropriate due to a lack of technical training that involves the risk in the formation of carcinogenic and mutagenic sub-products. The methodology applied for the design is based on the determination of the thermal efficiency of the equipment solar panel, the monitoring of the temperatures reached by the water, the total Coliform amount using the Petrifilm 3M plate technique, the cloudiness evaluation as an incident factor of Insolation, the set time of water exposure towards the UV lamps of wavelength 253, 7 nm with a power of 40 watts (W) and photovoltaic source. That is why, the available potential solar was identified for the electric generation in Ecuador. The dimensioning of the disinfection system was design for a dairy maximum flow of 2, 06*10

xviii -4 m 3 /s in rural areas supported by the thermos solar energy from the solar panel with a 46% thermal efficiency and 41◦C maximum average temperatures in 8 hours. The results of the microbiological count showed when the solar panel achieved temperatures with 55◦C record 0 Colony Forming Units (CFUs) and 33◦C >10 CFUs, with that information, the disinfection UV was combined with a set time of water exposure with 26 seconds for a volume of 0,2 m 3 and with an inactivation amount 45 Ws/m 2 . The set time of the disinfection in rural areas was 40 minutes, approximately. It is recommended that the disinfection could be performed with the thermal energy and the ultraviolent lamps.