TITLE:
Urgent Proposals for Disinfecting Hospital Wastewaters during COVID-19 Pandemic
AUTHORS:
Djamel Ghernaout, Noureddine Elboughdiri
KEYWORDS:
COVID-19 Pandemic, Coronavirus, Hospital Wastewater, Disinfection, Chlorination, Disinfection By-Products (DBPs)
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.7 No.5,
May
18,
2020
ABSTRACT: Hospitals are significant sources of contaminants derived from the diagnostic, laboratory, and research activities as well as medicine excretion by patients, which comprise active components of drugs and metabolite, chemicals, residues of pharmaceuticals, radioactive markers, iodinated contrast media, etc. Discharging hospital wastewater, especially those without convenient treatment could reveal the public in danger of infection. Particularly, below the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic context in China and the world, it is vital to avoid the health dangers to humans and nature. This work summaries scientific propositions for management, technology selection, and operation of hospital wastewater disinfection in China, which is crucial for suggesting worldwide disinfection planning for hospital wastewater during COVID-19 pandemic. Further, this work briefly reviews some techniques used for killing viruses such as photocatalytic methods and ferrate(IV). Numerous novel signs of progress have as well been performed in hospital wastewater treatment engineering, like radiation disinfection technique, reverse polymerization disinfection process, plasma disinfection method, and thermal gasification disinfection procedure.