LED Ultraviolet Technology for Drinking Water Disinfection: CFD Modeling of Reactors and Study of Kinetic Processes

This project addresses the challenge of ensuring safe drinking water supply by proposing ultraviolet disinfection technology based on light-emitting diodes (UV-LEDs) as an alternative to traditional chlorination, which generates harmful byproducts. The study focuses on evaluating the efficiency of UV-LED disinfection through the design, construction, and optimization of a single-pass continuous reactor. Optimization will be performed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools combined with optimization algorithms to determine optimal LED configurations regarding wavelength and spatial arrangement, aiming to maximize microbial inactivation. Experimentally, the inactivation of indicator bacteria such as *Escherichia coli* and *Enterococcus spp.* will be assessed using a collimated beam reactor (CBR-UV-LED) to obtain precise kinetic data. These kinetic and UV dose data will be integrated into the CFD model to numerically validate the performance of the designed continuous reactor. Finally, the viability of implementing this optimized technology locally will be analyzed, establishing replicable experimental protocols for UV-LED technology, an area currently lacking standardization.<br/><br/><b>Goal</b>: <br/>The main objective of this research is to study the efficiency of UV-LED water disinfection by analyzing the impact of laboratory reactor design and operation factors, as well as the inactivation and reactivation factors of indicator bacterial microorganisms present in human drinking water.<br/><br/><b>Research lines</b>: <br/>Climate change management