Publications related to Solar water disinfection

Acids from fruits generate photoactive Fe-complexes, enhancing solar disinfection of water (SODIS): A systematic study of the novel " fruto-Fenton " process, effective over a wide pH range (4-9)

César Pulgarin, Aline Laetitia Schaub, Stefanos Giannakis, Giulio Farinelli, Mona Kohantorabi

This study aimed to enhance solar disinfection (SODIS) by the photo-Fenton process, operated at natural pH, through the re-utilization of fruit wastes. For this purpose, pure organic acids present in fruits and alimentary wastes were tested and compared wi ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2024

Why five decades of massive research on heterogeneous photocatalysis, especially on TiO2, has not yet driven to water disinfection and detoxification applications? Critical review of drawbacks and challenges

César Pulgarin, Julian Andrés Rengifo Herrera

For fifty years, heterogeneous photocatalysis has been considered as having potential to remove organic and microbiological pollutants from water under either artificial UV light or sunlight irradiation. However, after tens of thousands of published resear ...

Elsevier Science Sa2023

Sunshine and a pinch of tropical soils: A natural, low-cost photo-Fenton variation for safer water, assisted by H2O2 or percabonate

César Pulgarin, Michaël Bensimon, Stefanos Giannakis, Thomas Guillaume, Jérémie Decker

Clean water is essential for human survival, but access to safe drinking water remains a challenge in resource -limited regions. Herein, we explored a low-cost but effective solution for water potabilization using natural iron sources from soils along with ...

ELSEVIER2023

Bacterial inactivation in sunlit surface waters is dominated by reactive species that emanate from the synergy between light, iron, and natural organic matter

César Pulgarin, Stefanos Giannakis, Jun Ma, Da Wang, Shuang Song

In this study, the synergistic and antagonistic effects of Fe species and coexisting natural organic matter (NOM) on the efficacy of solar light disinfection of water are investigated. Different initial iron species (Fe2+/Fe3+) and naturalorganic matter ty ...

Elsevier2023

Susceptibility of enveloped and non-enveloped viruses to ultraviolet light-emitting diode (UV-LED) irradiation and implications for virus inactivation mechanisms

Shotaro Torii

Ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (UV-LEDs), a disinfection technology, efficiently inactivate pathogens in water. However, the assessment of UV-LED treatment and the mechanisms of UV inactivation on viruses (especially enveloped viruses) are limited. ...

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY2023

Oxidative Water Treatment: The Track Ahead

Urs von Gunten, Yun Ho Lee

Chemical oxidation has been applied in municipal water treatment for more than a century, initially for disinfection. In the early decades, chlorine disinfection was adopted in the fight against waterborne disease. However, the oxidative properties of chlo ...

2023

Identifying the mediators of intracellular E. coli inactivation under UVA light: The (photo) Fenton process and singlet oxygen

César Pulgarin, Stefanos Giannakis

Solar disinfection (SODIS) was probed for its underlying mechanism. When Escherichia coli was exposed to UVA irradiation, the dominant solar fraction acting in SODIS process, cells exhibited a shoulder before death ensued. This profile resembles cell killi ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2022

Mechanistic modelling of solar disinfection (SODIS) kinetics of Escherichia coli, enhanced with H2O2 - Part 2: Shine on you, crazy peroxide

César Pulgarin, Stefanos Giannakis, Ling Feng

In this second part of the development of a mechanistic kinetic model of the solar inactivation of E. coli enhanced with hydrogen peroxide, we evaluate the mechanisms based on photonic inactivation and integrate them into the kinetic model of the dark proc ...

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA2022

Solar water purification with photocatalytic nanocomposite filter based on TiO2 nanowires and carbon nanotubes

László Forró, Luca Rossi, Andrzej Sienkiewicz, Endre Horvath, Florian Frédéric Vincent Breider, Dominique Grandjean, Miriam Gaál

Water contamination due to environmental conditions and poor waste management in certain areas of the world represents a serious problem in accessing clean and safe drinking water. This problem is especially critical in electricity-poor regions, where adva ...

2022

Toward biocontrol of waterborne pathogens: contributions of protists to virus removal and associated mechanisms

Margot Ninon Lauren Olive

Human viruses are widespread in the water environment and pose a risk to human health. Wastewater effluents represent the main source of viruses discharge in the environment, leading to contamination of aquatic ecosystems. Viral pathogens can persist on th ...

EPFL2022

Genotype-Dependent Kinetics of Enterovirus Inactivation by Free Chlorine and Ultraviolet (UV) Irradiation

Tamar Kohn, Shotaro Torii

Inactivation kinetics of enterovirus by disinfection is often studied using a single laboratory strain of a given genotype. Environmental variants of enterovirus are genetically distinct from the corresponding laboratory strain, yet it is poorly understood ...

2022

Mechanistic modelling of solar disinfection (SODIS) kinetics of Escherichia coli, enhanced with H2O2 - part 1: The dark side of peroxide

César Pulgarin, Stefanos Giannakis, Ling Feng

The present bi-partite work describes the development and validation of a mechanistic kinetic model of SODIS E. coli inactivation, enhanced with H2O2. In this first part, the mechanism of the baseline dark phenomena is modelled. A mechanistic model involvi ...

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA2022

SODIS potential: A novel parameter to assess the suitability of solar water disinfection worldwide

César Pulgarin, Stefanos Giannakis, Sofia Samoili, Giulio Farinelli

This paper studies the worldwide applicability of solar water disinfection (SODIS) technology through a novel parameter: the SODIS potential. This parameter is defined as the inverse ratio between the required exposure time to achieve a four log disinfecti ...

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA2021

Presence of sub-inhibitory concentrations of quaternary ammonium compounds in water: effects on bacteria and their inactivation by ozone and monochloramine

Margaux Océane Voumard

Disinfection agents have been present in our daily lives for several decades in detergents or in personal care products, where their role is to prevent the spread of pathogenic microor-ganisms. One of the largest class of disinfection agents is quaternary ...

EPFL2021

Defect engineered nanostructured LaFeO3 photoanodes for improved activity in solar water oxidation

Kevin Sivula, Mounir Driss Mensi, Liang Yao, Nestor Guijarro Carratala, Yongpeng Liu, Xavier Pereira Da Costa

LaFeO3 (LFO) is recognized as a candidate material for solar water oxidation, but its photoelectrochemical response remains modest and stagnant. With the aim of advancing LFO photoanodes for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), here, a nanorod array-type e ...

Royal Society of Chemistry2021

Robust and sustainable cultivation of microalgae: recycling of nitrogen from liquid digestate and control of biological contamination

Adrian Pulgarin

The present doctoral thesis aimed to achieve a robust cultivation of microalgae by recycling nitrogen from a liquid digestate. However, the use of non-sterile nutrient source increases the risks of contamination of undesired organisms such as bacteria, vir ...

EPFL2021

Detrimental vs. beneficial influence of ions during solar (SODIS) and photo-Fenton disinfection of E. coli in water: (Bi)carbonate, chloride, nitrate and nitrite effects

César Pulgarin, Stefanos Giannakis

In this work, we studied the effect of inorganic ions occurring in natural waters on E. coli inactivation by solar and photo-Fenton processes, two crucial methods for drinking water treatment in sunny or developing countries. HCO3-, Cl-, SO42-, NO3-, NO2- ...

2020

Visible light plays a significant role during bacterial inactivation by the photo-fenton process, even at sub-critical light intensities

César Pulgarin, Cristina del Socorro Lonfat, Stefanos Giannakis, Rosa Mosteo, David Muzard, Angelica Varon Lopez

The aim of this research is to clarify the contribution of sunlight wavelengths, irradiance and Fe2+/H2O2 during bacterial disinfection by the photo-Fenton process in clear surface waters. We considered different solar spectrum distributions (visible, UVA- ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2020

Photocatalytic Nanowires-Based Air Filter: Towards Reusable Protective Masks

László Forró, Endre Horvath, Andrzej Sienkiewicz, Caroline Lehmann

In the last couple decades, several viral outbreaks resulting in epidemics and pandemics with thousands of human causalities have been witnessed. The current Covid-19 outbreak represents an unprecedented crisis. In stopping the virus' spread, it is fundame ...

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH2020

Adaptation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to constant sub-inhibitory concentrations of quaternary ammonium compounds

Urs von Gunten, Giovanni Dietler, Sandor Kasas, Florian Frédéric Vincent Breider, Leonardo Venturelli, Myriam Borgatta, Margaux Océane Voumard

Quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) are widely used in consumer products for disinfection purposes. QACs are frequently detected in aquatic systems at sub-inhibitory concentrations and were found to affect the development of antimicrobial resistance if ba ...

2020