Talk:Solar water disinfection

some native speaker please correct the bad grammar/spelling, I just wanted to start this off :) User:wishkah256

Hey, the english looked pretty good, I just made some quick revisions to syntax. -Blake Woodard

Reorganize?
Just a thought, should the introduction at the top be re-written/re-organized? Right now the summary introduces the general idea and then goes into detail about the three subsets of technology (electric, thermal, UV). Would it be better to have these technologies discussed further down rather than in the intro? I feel that this will make the intro clearer and more concise.

I'll be doing some research on this topic over the coming months and will try and come back to edit this page. Cheerioswithmilk (talk) 02:23, 28 December 2012 (UTC)

More detail.
Some more detail is needed (certainly if someone is to follow the instructions). E.g. length of time also depends on sun intensity/cloud cover.

Plastic bags could also be used, I assume - has this been tested?

I assume that it would work well in conjunction with another method, in particular the Cloth filter method. Any research on this?

--Singkong2005 07:14, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

I agree. I came here to review the subject and didn't find something encyclopedic. Some things that would help:
 * a table of exposure times for different latitudes
 * information on what pathogens (if any) this fails to treat. E.g. is giardia destroyed? I.e. does it provide comprehensive disinfection or is it, as i have read elsewhere, merely "better than nothing at all".

Pouletic (talk) 16:01, 30 November 2010 (UTC)


 * I don't believe that wp:MEDRS and wp:HOWTO would permit the former, even if it was possible (which it is not). The linked references, however, provide the kind of information you are looking for.
 * "Comprehensive" disinfection isn't really the goal, rather "the best that is attainable under the circumstances". That said, the results are very impressive, not just "better than nothing at all". The WHO says here that: "The most promising and accessible of the technologies for household water treatment are filtration with ceramic filters, chlorination with storage in an improved vessel, solar disinfection in clear bottles by the combined action of UV radiation and heat, thermal disinfection (pasteurization) in opaque vessels with sunlight from solar cookers or reflectors and combination systems employing chemical coagulation-flocculation, sedimentation, filtration and chlorination. All of these systems have been shown to dramatically improve the microbiological quality of water."
 * Remember too that in epidemiology it is not necessary to stop every case of infection in order to stop an epidemic. It is only necessary to reduce the infectivity significantly below 1.0 (so that each cycle of the disease infects fewer hosts in the population). SODIS can definitely do this for several common pathogens, as identified in the article and its references. The article is also clear that SODIS does nothing to remove contaminants and discusses the need to do so (when turbidity precludes reading through the SODIS bottles) and means including filtration and flocculents. LeadSongDog come howl!  17:37, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Moved SODIS page to here
I moved SODIS to Solar water disinfection, and also moved the talk page. SODIS now redirects to Solar water disinfection.

It is better to have "Solar water disinfection" as the heading for this article, as it is self-explanatory, especially important when viewing it in a category listing. --Singkong2005 07:51, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

PET Antimony concerns
The PET page mentions Antimony as a catalyst used in manufacture. There are now (apparently) titanium based catalysts, used to make PET in Japan & the US. A PET subject Box 4 talks about Ti catalysts and google finds a few mentions. Someone with a better understanding could update the PET article and clarify that Sb leaching only happens when PET contains residual Sb (Antimony) catalyst. RDBrown 15:25, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
 * "After manufacturing, a detectable amount of antimony can be found on the surface of the product. This residue can be removed with washing."
 * Kortoso (talk) 11:51, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

Solar water pasteurisation
I've created redirects from Solar water pasteurisation and the Commonwealth equivalent, Solar water pasteurisation. I'm not 100% clear whether there's a subtle difference - e.g. is solar water pasteurisation the more general term, and solar water disinfection more commonly refer to the SODIS application of these principles? My internet connection is very slow, so I won't try and figure that out right now, but I will note that "solar water disinfection" gets roughly 17 times as many google hits. --Chriswaterguy talk 05:15, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Additional info
I'll try to help out with the page when I get a chance. Here's a good source of info giving estimated performance, upfront costs, batch costs and some precautions. The page should also link to all the other water purification methods: chlorination, sand filtering, pasteurization etc. This paper is ten years old but it's a good source of information.


 * Water disinfection for developing countries and potential for solar thermal pasteurization by Jay D. Burch and Karen E. ThomasMrshaba (talk) 06:06, 14 May 2008 (UTC)
 * It's here.LeadSongDog come howl!  16:13, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Water is not purified
This doesn't purify or clean the water; it just disinfects it. I'm sure this is recommended for practical reasons, but for a real solution that removes toxins and pollution, wouldn't a cheap, simple, reliable photo-distiller be better? 71.167.67.250 (talk) 18:50, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Solar still —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.167.67.250 (talk) 18:51, 29 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Charcoal filter, followed by this. Kortoso (talk)

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Photocatalyzed processes
While Solar irradiation, UV-A in particular, can directly inactivate water-borne micro-organisms, photocatalysis based approaches have gained increased traction in recent years. Titanium dioxide, in its anatase and rutile phases is notably the most studied material for such applications. In photocatalyzed water decontamination the anti-microbial activity of solar irradiation is boosted by the presence of a stable semiconductor oxide (TiO2 or otherwise) in which electron-hole pairs (excitons) are photogenerated by irradiation exceeding the material's optical band-gap. While exciton recombination is predominant, this process has been shown to facilitate the photo-oxidation of pollutants at the photocatalyst surface.

A photocatalysis based water treatment process can be enhanced by
 * Increased photocatalyst surface area
 * Reduction of electron-hole recombination rate by doping
 * Band gap reduction, or introduction of inter-band gap states by doping
 * Increased irradiative flux by solar concentration

Photocatalysis based water decontamination has been demonstrated using titanium dioxide in the form of thin films, thick films, particle suspensions and coated granular matter. While efficiency is generally low, the stability of the materials involved and the absence of an energy input requirement help maintain interest in such processes, with emphasis towards applications in remote areas.

External links modified
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 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.sodis.ch/files/note2.pdf

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Science
Boiling 2400:ADC7:119:2100:8835:9C4:DE7F:BFC1 (talk) 12:49, 6 November 2022 (UTC)


 * ...requires far more energy, which isn't as available to the communities this article's topic targets. Great point. Habanero-tan (talk) 04:16, 6 April 2023 (UTC)