UV Flow Cell Water Disinfection
Currently UV treatment of fluids is almost exclusively carried out using Low and Medium Pressure lamp technology that incorporate mercury as a generation source for UV photons. While UV treatment is replacing traditional chemical treatment in many applications, it still has a number of drawbacks. UV light-emitting diodes (UV-LEDs) provide solutions to most of these drawbacks.
Comparison of Mercury and UV LED Light Sources
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Attribute
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Mercury Lamp
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UV LED
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Heavy Metals
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Mercury (20-200mg)
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None
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Warm up Time
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2-15 Minutes
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Instantaneous
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Intermittent Flow
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10-60 minutes no flow limit
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Programmable
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Architecture
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Cylindrical Tube
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Adjustable/Versatile
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Voltage
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110-240V AC
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6-30V DC
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Current
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0.02 Amps
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0.5-2.0 Amps
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UV-C LEDs which emit radiation in the germicidal wavelengths (200nm-300nm) are an emerging technology with few manufacturers worldwide. Commercial adoption of UV-C LEDs is impeded by extremely low external quantum efficiencies, typically below 3%. However, despite their inefficiency, UV-C LEDs continue to generate interest for use in water disinfection applications.
Dot Metrics has developed a novel UV LED system that optimizes UV–C output and allows this technology to be used today for disinfection of water, air and surfaces.