Water treatment
In general terms, the greatest microbial risks are associated with ingestion of water that is contaminated with human or animal (including bird) feces.
Research including Professor Linda Lawton's group at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen is working to improve detection of cyanobacteria.
[2] These substances continue to cause great harm to several less developed countries who do not have access to effective water purification systems.
It is therefore common practice to keep residual disinfectants in the treated water to kill bacteriological contamination during distribution and to keep the pipes clean.
Cooling towers can also scale up and corrode, but left untreated, the warm, dirty water they can contain will encourage bacteria to grow, and Legionnaires' disease can be the fatal consequence.
The dissolved metal ions are transformed to an insoluble phase by a chemical interaction with a precipitant agent such as lime.
[15] Membrane filtration can remove suspended solids and organic components, and inorganic pollutants such heavy metals.
For heavy metal removal, several forms of membrane filtration, such as ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, and reverse osmosis, can be used depending on the particle size that can be maintained.
The adsorptive removal of color, aroma, taste, and other harmful organics and inorganics from drinking water and wastewater is one of their industrial applications.
Activated carbon was utilized by a number of studies to remove heavy metals and other types of contaminants from wastewater.
Because of its high surface area, porosity, and flexibility, activated carbon has a lot of potential in wastewater treatment.
[24] This is the method by which dissolved and suspended organic chemical components are eliminated through biodegradation, in which an optimal amount of microorganism is given to re-enact the same natural self-purification process.
Microorganisms involved in wastewater treatment produce end products such as minerals, carbon dioxide, and ammonia during the biological oxidation process.
Microorganisms use organic materials in wastewater to generate new microbial cells with dense biomass that is eliminated by sedimentation throughout the biosynthesis process.
[28] China adopted its own drinking water standard GB3838-2002 (Type II) enacted by Ministry of Environmental Protection in 2002.
Appropriate technology options in water treatment include both community-scale and household-scale point-of-use (POU) or self-supply designs.
[32] Despite progress in SODIS technology, military surplus water treatment units like the ERDLator are still frequently used in developing countries.
A 2021 study found that a large-scale water chlorination program in urban areas of Mexico massively reduced childhood diarrheal disease mortality rates.
