The presence of pathogens in drinking water can seriously affect human health. Therefore, water disinfection is needed, but conventional processes, such as chlorination, result in the production of dangerous disinfection by-products. In this regard, an alternative solution to tackle the problem of bacterial pollution may be the application of advanced oxidation processes. In this work, the inactivation of total coliforms, naturally present in a Colombian surface water by means of UV/H2O2, UV/US, and the UV/US/H2O2 advanced oxidation processes, was investigated. Under the investigated conditions, complete bacterial inactivation (detection limit equal to 1 CFU 100 mL-1) was found within 5 min of treatment by UV/H2O2 and UV/US/H2O2 systems. UV/US oxidation process also resulted in total bacterial load elimination, but after 15 min of treatment. Bacterial reactivation after 24 h and 48 h in the dark was measured and no subsequent regrowth was observed. This phenomenon could be attributed to the high oxidation capacity of the evaluated oxidation systems. However, the process resulting in the highest oxidation potential at the lowest operating cost, in terms of energy consumption, was UV/H2O2 system. Therefore, UV/H2O2 advanced oxidation system can be used for disinfection purposes, enabling drinking water production meeting the requirements of regulated parameters in terms of water quality, without incurring extremely high energy costs. Nonetheless, further researches are required for minimizing the associated electric costs.
Keywords: Advanced oxidation process; Disinfection; Total coliform; UV/H2O2 system; UV/US process; UV/US/H2O2 system; Water treatment.