Seeing The Light: The Benefits Of

UV Water Treatment
A Q&A with Jennifer Muller, Municipal UV Marketing Director, Trojan Technologies

By Kevin Westerling, Web Editor

Jennifer Muller is a professional engineer and expert in the field of water and
wastewater ultraviolet (UV) disinfection. As municipal UV marketing director
for Trojan Technologies, she commercializes technology and product
innovations to help municipalities install sustainable and cost-effective water
treatment solutions.

Water Online spoke with Jennifer about the state of the water industry, and
how current conditions — economic, regulatory, and otherwise — are
contributing to the proliferation of UV for water treatment.

What advantages does UV water treatment offer versus conventional treatment technologies?

Most significantly, UV is able to inactivate pathogens such as giardia and cryptosporidium, which are
chlorine-resistant. Another key benefit of UV over gaseous chlorine or liquid sodium hypochlorite is that
it doesn’t add anything to the water — except UV light. Most drinking water treatment plants, however,
require a residual to ensure water remains safe and clean throughout the distribution. In these cases, a
small chlorine residual is added after UV disinfection to maintain the water’s quality until its final
destination.

UV also has a significantly lower carbon footprint versus chlorine, as well as a smaller physical footprint
due to shorter contact time. No disinfection byproducts are generated with UV, and it is a safer option
for the operator and the community than chlorine gas, which is toxic if released.

In addition, UV is typically less expensive over time than chlorine, since chlorine pricing is highly variable
depending on delivery location, transportation costs, contract terms, etc.

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What impact have new government mandates had on the adoption of UV technology, both in the
United States and abroad?

Within the United States, regulations have had a very positive effect on the adoption of UV technology.
The U.S. EPA’s UV Disinfection Guidance Manual was developed to assist and guide engineers and
municipalities in understanding and implementing UV as a disinfection technology to comply with the
Long-Term Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule (LT2). In fact, the EPA recognized UV as the “best
available technology” for cryptosporidium and giardia treatment.

In Europe, bathing water directives have created opportunities for UV disinfection through requirements
for lowering bacterial concentrations in receiving water bodies and limiting the number of stormwater
overflows allowed to discharge annually.

What are your thoughts on the state of water infrastructure in the United States, often cited as aging
and inadequate?

Aging water infrastructure poses significant challenges, supported by the fact that there are 240,000
water main breaks every year in the United States. The American Society of Civil Engineers and the U.S.
EPA cite the infrastructure investment required to fix U.S. water systems at $335 billion over 20 years.
Stimulus spending has provided some recent relief, but huge investments will be needed in coming
years.

With so much investment needed, what recommendations do you have for price-sensitive markets
that are concerned about the capital cost of UV disinfection systems?

New “greenfield” plants usually find that UV disinfection has a lower installed capital price than
chemical disinfection. Because the UV process requires a very small footprint compared to chlorine
contact tanks, construction is simple and inexpensive. Plants that already have disinfection
infrastructure — plants with chlorine contact tanks, for example — must evaluate the long-term life-
cycle cost for disinfection. UV often has a lower life-cycle cost thanks to lower annual operating costs,
as frequent chemical purchases outpace the cost of electricity and periodic replacement of lamps.

In capital-sensitive markets, Trojan demonstrates to our customers the value of high-quality products
and the importance of long-term equipment reliability. We highlight the long-term savings in operating
and maintenance costs since disinfection will occur for the life of the equipment. Over the years, we’ve
witnessed many UV companies come and go — unfortunately leaving the municipality in a tough spot
when they need service and parts down the road.

We design into our products key features that customers in capital-sensitive markets highly value — for
example, a user-friendly operator interface, simple diagnostics, and easy, intuitive operations and
maintenance.

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Increasing water scarcity has led to a rise in water reuse and recycling. How can UV help?

UV provides a safe, simple, and cost-effective disinfection technology for wastewater reuse. The reuse
of municipal wastewater — pretreated and disinfected with UV to stringent levels — provides an
alternate water source for needs such as irrigation, flushing, and washing, thus reducing the burden on
potable water supplies. Since no disinfection byproducts are generated with UV disinfection, UV is an
ideal technology for the disinfection of pathogens for reuse waters.

In arid regions, UV-oxidation has been successfully implemented in direct and indirect potable reuse
plans on a large municipal scale. UV effectively destroys the trace contaminants, allowing for recycling
and reuse of the water.

How widely, and to what scale, is UV technology currently being employed?

There are currently over 7,000 municipal Trojan UV installations in the world, disinfecting both
wastewater and drinking water. Treatment plants in major cities around the world, including New York
City, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Seattle, Shanghai, and Atlanta, treat millions of gallons of water with UV
every day. When completed, New York City will operate the largest drinking water UV installation in the
world, the Catskill/Delaware Trojan UV facility, with a capacity to treat 2.24 billion gallons per day (for
more information on the project, see this case study).

Which industrial market segments benefit most from UV disinfection?

There are numerous industrial applications that employ UV technology. In the microelectronics industry,
UV is used to oxidize trace contaminants to very low levels (parts per billion), thus producing high-purity
water for microchip manufacturing. In food and beverage, UV — being a physical process — is used to
disinfect water without chemicals, which can alter the taste and/or composition of the water. Other
industrial applications include aquaculture, swimming pools, spray parks/fountains, etc.

How do you see the water market and UV technology trending for the future?

We are seeing increased requirements for water treatment around the world. In emerging markets,
collection systems, infrastructure, and new wastewater treatment plants are being constructed, while
drinking water plants are being built to treat and convey clean water to growing populations. In mature
markets, stricter regulations are being adopted requiring plants to install equipment that enable higher
treatment levels , such as that required for the removal of nutrients and destruction of chemical
contaminants.

The challenge of today — with municipal capital and operating budgets tighter than ever — is to
increase operating efficiencies and reduce ongoing expenditures. Considering its cost, safety, and
environmental advantages, I expect UV to play an increasing role in providing safe, clean drinking water
and fully-treated wastewater for generations to come.

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