Study on marine bacteria inactivation of ballast water by combination of micro-pore ceramic filtration and UV radiation

Marine bacterium in ballast water as a kind of threat to marine ecosystem and human beings has drawn increasing attention. UV is a well-established ways to deal with water bacteria, however, its irradiation will be greatly affected by alga in ballast water. Therefore, our method combines UV radiation with a primary micro-pore ceramic filtration (MPCF) to inactivate bacteria without disturb of suspending algae in ballast water. The study compared UV treatment with MPCF&UV treatment at different flow rates and different alga concentrations. The results showed that less than 45% marine bacteria can be inactivated by single UV radiation, while up to 100% inactivation rates were observed by MPCF&UV treatment. Also scanning electronic microscope (SEM) was applied to observe changes of bacterium in structure to real the mechanism behind MPCF&UV treatment.