How to ensure sufficient disinfection

Different microorganisms have different susceptibilities to disinfectants, and disinfectants vary in their potency. For a given microorganism, disinfection efficiency is affected especially by disinfectant concentration and contact time, and also by the disinfectant demand of the water, pH and temperature. The product of disinfectant concentration (C in mg/l, measured at the end of the contact period) and time (t in minutes) is called Ct (in mg/l.min) and is an expression of exposure to the disinfectant:

Ct = C × t

The greater the Ct value, or exposure, the more effective disinfection is. Either concentration or contact time, or both, can be manipulated to obtain a desired Ct value. Values of Ct can be useful for comparing the efficiency of disinfectants; the lower the value of Ct to attain a given kill of microorganisms, the more effective the disinfectant. The Ct value can also be used to rank the relative susceptibility of different microorganisms; the higher the Ct value necessary to achieve a given level of kill the more resistant the microorganism.

The World Health Organisation recommend that there should be a free chlorine concentration of ≥ 0.5 mg/L after at least 30 minutes contact time (so Ct = 30 x 0.5 = 15 mg.min/L), at pH < 8.0. And that at the point of delivery, the minimum free chlorine concentration should be 0.2 mg/L.

In the case of ultraviolet irradiation Ct cannot be calculated in the same way and the exposure is expressed as UV radiation energy density, which is equivalent to (power × time) per unit area, expressed in milliwatt seconds per square centimetre (mW.s/cm2) or millijoules per square centimeter (mJ/cm2).

Back to top