Chlorination
is a disinfection technology. Its primary purpose is to remove microbial
contamination. For general information on chlorine, please visit
the Chlorine Chemistry
Council website. Three MIT project case studies are presented
below. Please choose a project from the drob-down menu:
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| Hypochlorite
Generation in Kathmandu
Since
1998, the Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO),
an NGO based in Kathmandu, has been producing a calcium hypochlorite
solution, called Piyush, using bleaching powder imported from India.
The production, promotion and circulation of Piyush have been limited
due to difficulties in the manufacturing process (large quantities
of solid residual result in disposal issues) and the need for official
registration of the product.
The
2002 Nepal Water Project team, lead by Luca Morganti, helped ENPHO to install and commission a hypochlorite generator, which is capable
of producing a sodium hypochlorite solution from a brine solution
of water and common salt (sodium chloride); with no solid waste
production. The new product, which will keep the name Piyush, has
a different composition from the previous formulation. Tests by ENPHO and MIT
M.Eng. students aim to confirm the new product's efficacy and reliability.
The
unit installed at ENPHO is a SANILECÓ-6, which was donated
in October 2001 by the manufacturing company Severn
Trent de Nora. The SANILECÓ-6 unit produces up to 2.7
kg of available chlorine with a concentration between 0.5 and 0.7
% in a 24-hour production cycle.
A series
of tests were performed to identify the optimal production procedure
in terms of salt dose, cycle duration, and salt quality. For more
information, please see Luca
Morganti's thesis.
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| The
Lumbini Chlorination Pilot Program
The
Lumbini Pilot Chlorination Project was set up in January 2001 by
Susan Murcott and Lee Hersh in an effort to provide safe drinking
water to households in Lumbini and to test the social acceptability
of chlorine in the Terai region of Nepal. The 34 households and
4 schools participating in the program received a supply of Piyush,
a dilute calcium hypochlorite bleaching solution manufactured in
Kathmandu, and a modified bucket system for water collection and
chlorination. Participants were instructed on the proper use of
the chlorination system and health surveys were performed on a monthly
basis.
During
the fieldwork period in January 2002, students visited the homes
of continuing program participants. Each household was interviewed
to gather information about the use and acceptance of the chlorine
solution. Household water was tested for chlorine residual to determine
if households were chlorinating properly and water samples were
collected for microbial analysis to determine if the chlorination
was effectively removing bacterial contamination. Health data collected
by the International Buddhist Society Health Clinic was also analyzed
to see how the pilot study affected the health of participants.
For
more information, please see Hanna Sullivan's thesis (2002) and visit the CDC
Safe Water System, which the Lumbini Pilot Chlorination Project
was based on.
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|
Chlorine
Demand Study, Haiti
Sara
Elice investigated chlorine demand at several Haitian drinking water
sources to establish a safe and ecomical quantity of bleach to use
in conjunction with the Gift of Water's two-bucket filtration system.
For more information, please see Sara's thesis (2002).
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