Solar desalination/purification (solar stills, humidification-dehumidification, solar disinfection) in high altitude during COVID19: Insights of gastrointestinal manifestations and systems' mechanism

Seyed Masoud Parsa; Fatemeh Norozpour; Ammar H Elsheikh; A E Kabeel

doi:10.1016/j.hazadv.2023.100259

Solar desalination/purification (solar stills, humidification-dehumidification, solar disinfection) in high altitude during COVID19: Insights of gastrointestinal manifestations and systems' mechanism

J Hazard Mater Adv. 2023 May:10:100259. doi: 10.1016/j.hazadv.2023.100259. Epub 2023 Feb 14.

Authors

Seyed Masoud Parsa¹, Fatemeh Norozpour², Ammar H Elsheikh³, A E Kabeel⁴

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia.
² Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Marine Science and Technology, Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran.
³ Department of Production Engineering and Mechanical Design, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt.
⁴ Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt.

Abstract

From the starting of the pandemic different transmission routes of the pathogen was brought into the spotlight by researchers from different disciplines. This matter in high-altitudes was more boosted as the main parameters were not exactly realized. In this review we are about to highlight the possibility of consuming contaminated water generated form solar water desalination/disinfection systems in highlands. Three systems including solar still, solar disinfection (which experimented by the authors in 2019 in high altitude) and humidification-dehumidification were consider in this context. Ascribe to the risks of pathogens transmission in solar desalination/disinfection systems where the water resources are heavily polluted in every corner of the world, highlighting the risk of consuming water in high-altitude where there are many other parameters associated with spread of pathogen is of great importance. As it was reported, reliability of solar desalination and solar water disinfections systems against contaminated water by the novel coronavirus remained on the question because the virus can be transmitted by vapor in solar stills due to tiny particle size (60-140 nm) and would not be killed by solar disinfections due to low-temperature of operation <40 °C while for HDH contamination of both water and air by sars-cov-2 could be a concern. Although the SARS-CoV-2 is not a waterborne pathogen, its capability to replicate in stomach and infection of gastrointestinal glandular suggested the potential of transmission via fecal-oral. Eventually, it was concluded that using solar-based water treatment as drinking water in high altitude regions should be cautiously consider and recommendations and considerations are presented. Importantly, this critical review not only about the ongoing pandemic, but it aims is to highlight the importance of produced drinking water by systems for future epidemic/pandemic to prevent spread and entering a pathogen particularly in high-altitude regions via a new routes.

Keywords: CSO, Combined Sewer Overflows; Fecal-oral transmission; Gastrointestinal transmission; HDH, Humidification-Dehumidification; LED, Light Emitted Diode; PCM, Phase Change Materials; SARS-CoV-2; SODIS, Solar Water Disinfection; Solar desalination; WBE, Wastewater based epidemiology; WWTP, Wastewater Treatment Plant; Water purification.