ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Water
Sec. Water and Human Health
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frwa.2025.1490541
This article is part of the Research TopicWater Pollution and Human HealthView all 6 articles
Comparison of two different container designs and UV-C LED configurations in their drinking water disinfection efficiency
Provisionally accepted
- 1Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland
- 2Department of Technology, OST Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences, Rapperwsil, Switzerland
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Safe drinking water free of microbial contamination can be obtained by using water treatment technologies applied at the household level, for instance UV irradiation. This study investigated the disinfection efficiency of two different configurations of UV-C LEDs in water containers (domes with 5 LEDs and a lance containing 40 LEDs), and assessed their potential for providing effective drinking water treatment options at household level. Male-specific (MS2) coliphages were used as biodosimeter and their concentration was measured before and after a defined irradiation time to calculate the log inactivation. The reduction equivalent dose (RED) was calculated using averaged data from published collimated beam experiments. One of the two configurations (domes) achieved a 4-log inactivation in two different containers, even though it consisted of 8 times fewer LEDs than the lance: the container with a volume of 11.1 L and a RED of 1'120 J/m 2 after an exposure time of 6 hours and the container with a volume of 31.1 L and a RED between 735 J/m 2 and 1'821 J/m 2 after 6 to 12 hours of exposure time. The disinfection efficiency of both configurations could be improved by including a stirring device or flow-through solution to avoid the occurrence of non-irradiated water and a placement of LEDs that avoids the overlapping of UV-C light cones and allows for large light cone formations. It was demonstrated that UV-C LEDs can be combined with ordinary containers in a low-cost, self-built set-up and can be applied to treat drinking water.
Keywords: Drinking water disinfection, UV-C LED, LED placement, non-irradiated volume, Container design, Household water treatment, MS2 inactivation, DIY UV device
Received: 03 Sep 2024; Accepted: 08 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Caduff, Englert, Meierhofer and Burkhardt. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lea Caduff, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland
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