Inactivation of microalgae in ballast water with pulse intense light treatment

The exotic emission of ballast water has threatened the coastal ecological environment and people’s health in many countries. This paper firstly introduces pulse intense light to treat ballast water. 99.9 ± 0.09% inactivation of Heterosigma akashiwo and 99.9 ± 0.16% inactivation of Pyramimonas sp. are observed under treatment conditions of 350 V pulse peak voltage, 15 Hz pulse frequency, 5 ms pulse width and 1.78 L/min flow rate. The energy consumption of the self-designed pulse intense light treatment system is about 2.90–5.14 times higher than that of the typical commercial UV ballast water treatment system. The results indicate that pulse intense light is an effective technique for ballast water treatment, while it is only a competitive one when drastic decreasing in energy consumption is accomplished.