PAA And UV Pair Up To Improve Disinfection Performance

Peracetic acid (PAA)-based disinfection is growing in the US, both as a standalone disinfection method and in conjunction with other applications such as UV. Water Online Radio sat down with John Maziuk, Technical Development Manager with Solvay Chemicals to understand why.

As Maziuk explains, PAA has two key benefits when applied to the front end of a UV system. The first is that it helps prevent fouling, saving operators labor in avoiding the need to shut the system down on a regular basis to clean it up and energy costs from having to turn up the power to keep the UV system running optimally as fouling takes places.

The second benefit is that UV light catalyzes the peracetic acid to increase the reaction rate. Resonance is critical to UV disinfection and can alter significantly with variable flow rates. But by adding PAA to the process, you ensure that disinfection takes place even when resonance time reduces with UV.

To learn more about the application of PAA, how to store it and not having to worry about chlorinated byproducts, listen here: