Comparative Analysis of the Effectiveness of Reverse Osmosis and Ultraviolet Radiation of Water Treatment

Abstract

Water contamination and pollution pose health hazards to humanity and hence the need for their treatment. This study compared reverse osmosis (RO) and ultra-violet (UV) radiation in treating borehole water (BHW) and surface water (SW). The study area is Omoku community in Rivers State of Nigeria. The RO- and UV-treated waters were determined by their physicochemical characteristics and total Coliform, with the control to check the impact of each one. The obtained results showed slight variations, which were either significant or not. The pH of the treated BHW was slightly acidic with the value of 6.52. Water conductivity ranged from 40.33 μs/cm3 to 42.40 μs/cm3 for the BHW treated with RO, UV and control samples, respectively. SW conductivity attained a range of 425.07–800.0 μs/cm3. Turbidity of BHW were beyond the detectable limit but was higher than the WHO limit of <5.00NTU, while total suspended solid (TSS) of SW ranged from 9.08–46.43 ppm. Total dissolved solids (TDS) values of water were between 3.50 ppm and 16.67 ppm for RO treated BHW and higher than that of SW. There was a reduction of salinity of BHW from 40.7 mg/l to 11.8 and 21.6 mg/l following RO and UV treatment, while SW salinity was also reduced from 75.0 mg/l to 20 mg/l in RO treated water and 16 mg/l in UV treated water. In this study, RO and UV water treatment proved to be effective in producing potable water from both BHW and SW, although RO seemed to produce water with reduced mineral content in comparison to the UV treatment. Both methods effectively reduced heavy metals as well as Coliform. The physicochemical parameters tested were below the WHO recommended limits in most cases. It is recommended that both methods be incorporated in a single WT in order to gain the benefits of both technologies.