Modeling and Design of a UV Disinfection System Employing Excimer Lamps

A non-mercury, excimer UV disinfection reactor was designed by integration of the results of numerical simulations based on computational fluid dynamics and an irradiance field model for cylindrical excimer lamps. The irradiance field model was developed based on the principle that excimer lamps emit radiation from a large number of point sources; the model incorporates calculations for absorption, dissipation, reflection, and refraction within the reactor system. A prototype reactor was constructed with a xenon-bromide excimer lamp and a quartz internal spiral baffle. Experiments were conducted on the reactor to test its effectiveness for disinfection of drinking water in situations where the use of mercury-based UV sources is restricted or undesirable; a similar design approach could be used to develop an excimer UV reactor for disinfection of other fluid media, including wastewater and air.