Experimental Research on the Treatment of Stormwater Contaminated by Disinfectants Using Recycled Materials—Hemp Fiber and Ceramzite

Marina Valentukeviciene (), Ieva Andriulaityte and Ramune Zurauskiene
Additional contact information
Marina Valentukeviciene: Environmental Engineering Faculty, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, LT-10223 Vilnius, Lithuania
Ieva Andriulaityte: Environmental Engineering Faculty, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, LT-10223 Vilnius, Lithuania
Ramune Zurauskiene: Environmental Engineering Faculty, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, LT-10223 Vilnius, Lithuania

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-13

Abstract: Pollution caused by the use of disinfectants in public spaces is a relatively new form of environmental contamination. During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–2021, early research showed a sevenfold increase in the use of disinfectants to clean outdoor spaces and a corresponding increase in environmental pollution. Typically, after entering stormwater systems, disinfectants are carried to surface waters (e.g., rivers, seas and lakes) where they react with various elements to form harmful compounds. In the absence of data, it is not possible to determine accurate levels of pollution according to the latest scientific information. Our enquiry demonstrates that stormwater pollution indicators (pH, conductivity, turbidity and color intensity) change depending on the amounts of disinfectants present. Laboratory tests were conducted using hemp fiber and ceramzite, in which filtered stormwater samples contaminated with different amounts of disinfectants showed decreases in the amounts of active chlorine from 2.93 ppm to 1.0 ppm. Changes in pH levels, conductivity, turbidity and color intensity were monitored before and after filtration; pH indicators changed slightly (from 7.81 to 7.85), turbidity changes varied in the range of 0.070–0.145 NTU and the highest value of color intensity (1.932 AV) was obtained when 50 mL of disinfectant was added to the investigated sample water. This article presents the results of our research into the impact of disinfectants on stormwater. Further investigation is needed in order to determine the impacts of chemical substances on our water ecosystem.

Keywords: disinfectants; stormwater; pollution indicators; recycled materials (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/21/14486/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/21/14486/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:21:p:14486-:d:963587

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().