The better knowledge achieved in last years led to the development of second-generation UV radiation sources: LED (Light Emitting Diode). Comparing UV and LED-UV lamps, these have multiple advantages.
Unlike mercury vapor UV lamps, which require a few minutes to reach 100% of the disinfectant power, the LEDs are able to instantly express the maximum of their power. This opens the door to new possibilities of UV disinfection with discontinuous or pulsed flow.
The UV-C LEDs are therefore suitable for discontinuous operation, as they don’t have the technological limit of mercury vapor UV lamps which allow a limited number of daily ignitions (5 or 6). This LED attitude can be exploited in highly discontinuous applications such as domestic purification systems.
The extremely small dimensions make it possible to insert the LEDs in specific points of the units and optimize projects.
For peculiar applications is possible to select LEDs with particular wavelengths. This allows to obtain the most effective wave-length to face bacteria’s families.
UV lamps exchange heat directly with the water to be treated while the LED exchanges heat directly outside the unit. Furthermore, UV lamps are strongly influenced by water’s temperature. Last but not least, LED have no mercury content while common UV lamps do.
