6. Solar System Design for Water Treatment: Antibacterial Heat Exchanger (ABHE)

Current study concerns the fundamental problems to eliminate pathogens that are responsible for waterborne diseases. These illnesses, which have followed man throughout history, are described by occurring symptoms such as diarrhea and nausea. The various organisms identified within this document as waterborne bacterial pathogens are, e.g., Legionella (causes Pontiac fever), Salmonella (typhoid fever), and Yersinia (plague). Several control methods are available for water disinfection: biocide, ultraviolet light sterilization, copper–silver ionization, ozonation, etc., but only thermal treatment can eliminate bacterial pathogens, which are killed almost instantly at 70 °C. The current chapter describes water disinfection by a solar concentrator combined with a heat recovery system that reduces the heat demand. Though this study is made for a small system (160 l of hot water per day), the system can be enlarged (more hot water and more solar collector area), and the results are thus valid also for such larger systems. Here experiments of water treatment by a solar concentrator are summarized and analyzed where the temperature exceeds 80 °C at the outlet of the heat exchanger.