Experts Join Forces To Test The Efficiency Of Ozone In Eliminating The Virus

This article was originally written and published in Portugeuse by Brazil’s Portal Tratamento de Água on March 26, 2021. The following translation has been provided by BlueInGreen for English-speaking audiences.

The deficiency in the coverage of basic sanitation services is alarming in Brazil, where about half of the volume of sewage generated does not receive adequate treatment. In the context of the SARS-Cov 2 (Covid 19) pandemic, the risk of the presence of the virus in the sewers has awakened the scientific community to the North American technology, HyDOZ® by BlueInGreen, to dissolve ozone gas, to eliminate the virus in the sewers.

"The initiative to apply ozone is based on the simplicity of the system and because it is a powerful oxidizing agent, with wide use in water and sewage treatment processes, adding to other secondary benefits, when compared to other existing disinfection technologies" , explains Paula Vilela, Civil Engineer, PhD in Basic Sanitation from the University of São Paulo, Post-Doctorate from the IHE - Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands, and leader in the Water area at Ramboll Brazil, national arm of one of the largest environmental consultancies in the world. The specialist reveals that another risk factor refers to professionals in the area of ​​basic sanitation, especially the operators of Sewage Treatment Plants (ETEs), and those who perform maintenance of collecting networks, because they are in daily contact with samples of sewers. Inhalation of aerosols can be a dangerous route of transmission of the virus.

In Brazil, 100M inhabitants are affected by the lack of sanitation, according to the National Sanitation Information System (SNIS) of 2018. “This reality makes us more vulnerable to infections due to waterborne diseases, such as infectious gastroenteritis, yellow fever, dengue, leptospirosis, malaria and schistosomiasis, in addition to the new risk of COVID, as we suffer from the lack of sewage treatment coverage. It is time to invest in technologies such as HyDOZ® ”, which has already proved to be efficient in removing various contaminants, in water and sewage, says Paula Vilela.

For Eugenio Singer, General Director of Ramboll Brazil, one of the most serious symptoms resulting from the precariousness of basic sanitation and inadequate treatment of sewage, is the collapse of health.

HyDOZ® The first phase of testing with HyDOZ® technology for the elimination of SARS-COV-2 was conducted by Paula Vilela, in the United States, in partnership with the University of Arkansas, between September and November 2020. The second phase will be carried out at Brazil, scheduled to start in April.

The engineer is part of a group of researchers from the University of São Paulo (USP) that seek to test the effectiveness of this disinfection technology. To know more Book launch in March: “WATER REUSE AS A STRATEGY FOR SCARCITY 1st EDITION - PRINTED. The book devotes the third chapter to addressing the consequences of Covid-19 for sewage treatment. ABOUT RAMBOLL Ramboll is a company of Danish origin, which is among the largest environmental consultancies in the world, employing 16,000 people in 35 nations, including Brazil where it is present in São Paulo (Capital and Valinhos), Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais ( Mariana and BH), Bahia, Espírito Santo and Brasília. It operates in the following markets: water, environment, health, energy and mining. For more information, visit https://tratamentodeagua.com.br/empresa/ramboll-brasil/.

BlueInGreen │  A ChartWater Center of Excellence: BlueInGreen is a water clean-tech company and dissolved-gas expert that leads the industry-wide trend of replacing chemicals, catalysts, and ambient air with oxygen, carbon-dioxide, and ozone, delivering lower treatment costs for oxygenation, pH adjustment, oxidation, and odor control.