Underwater Spatial Distribution of UVC Radiant Intensity in Different Water Environment for Ballast Water Treatment

Abstract

UV radiation, as an effective method for bacteria inactivation, has been applied popularly on ballast water treatment. However, the inactivation efficiencies of UV radiation greatly depend on the UV intensity which distributed unevenly in water and can be deeply affected by the suspending particles in water. For better understanding of the spatial distribution of UV radiation, a 16W UVC lamp was measured underwater to detect the radiant intensity over horizontal and vertical distance. The distribution tendency of UV radiant intensity was probed behind large amounts of experimental data. In addition, four types of different water including tap water, clean seawater, seawater mixed with suspending substances (SS), and seawater mixed with typical algae, were studied to identity the influence of water environment on UV transmission. The impacting significances were compared among different water quality, to optimize the ballast water treatment methods combining with UV radiation.