Disinfection of Phytoplankton by Application of UV LED

Ship ballast water includes variety of marine species in the port or near coast. When ships come in and/or out port, discharged ballast water contaminates sea and destroys marine ecology system. The International Maritime Organization(IMO) adopted the convention on ballast water management in February 2004 and insists all ships be equipped with ballast water treatment system from 2010. In this paper, we analyzed disinfection characteristics for phytoplankton using deep Ultra-Violet Light Emitting Diode(UV LED) as a basic study for developing ballast water treatment system. We fabricated UV LED modules having peak in wavelength at 255, 265, 280[nm] and exposed each module to equal UV dose between 100~400[mJ/cm2].The experimental result showed that the highest disinfection wavelength on the phytoplankton appeared at 265[nm] when equal UV dose was irradiated. Key-Words: UV LED, Phytoplankton, Disinfection, Wavelength, Ballast water