UV Technology for One Water: Current Market Forecast, Peer-Reviewed Papers and Conferences

By Corresponding Authors Castine A. Bernardy, Ph.D., CDM Smith; and James P. Malley, Jr., Ph.D., Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of New Hampshire

This issue’s column provides an overview of the global market for UV disinfection technology, a survey of recent publications related to One Water and a summary of research efforts and projects currently underway.

A Snapshot of the UV Water Treatment Systems Global Market

The global UV water treatment systems market size was $1.24 billion in 2023, and the market is projected to reach $2.57 billion by 2032 at a CAGR of 8.4% during the forecast period, according to a recent report from Business Research Insights. 1

Factors contributing to this growth include stringent government regulations regarding water quality, the rising demand for advanced water treatment technologies, especially in water reuse projects and the expanding applications of UV systems across various industries, including municipal water treatment, industrial processes, and residential use. Another pivotal element driving market expansion is the technological advancements in UV disinfection systems, many of which relate to energy efficiency and the promise of UV LED sources. These systems are becoming more efficient, cost-effective and user-friendly, thus enhancing their adoption across different sectors.

Additionally, as urbanization accelerates and populations grow, the pressure on existing water supply and treatment infrastructure intensifies, making UV systems an attractive solution for water treatment challenges. The emergence of smart water management technologies that integrate UV disinfection further supports the growth of this market, as stakeholders seek innovative methods to optimize their water treatment processes. The growing concerns over “forever chemicals” (e.g., PFAS, micro/nano-plastics) also has spurred increases in water treatment technologies, but as of this writing, the effectiveness of UV-related technologies sometimes proven at the research scale has not translated to many full-scale applications and, therefore, has not significantly impacted the market for UV technologies.

Latest in UV Research Projects and Presentations

In “One Water” treatment, one can find a conference every week somewhere. A convenient calendar for these can be found at https://conferenceindex.org/conferences/water-treatment. Below is a summary of the major conference presentations related to UV technologies.

2025 will have timely and interesting conferences sponsored by IUVA that will have important presentations related to UV technology in “One Water” applications. Notably:

  • Abstracts currently are being solicited through March 14, 2025, for the Third International Conference of FAR-UVC Science and Technology (ICFUST) which will be held June 16-18, 2025, in Boulder, Colorado.
  • The Environmental Engineering Society of Singapore (EESS), International Ultraviolet Association (IUVA) and Centre for Water Research (CWR) in National University of Singapore (NUS) have announced the 2025 IUVA Asian Pacific Symposium, scheduled to take place in NUS, Singapore on July 7-8, 2025.
  • In addition, join IUVA members at the 2025 IUVA World Congress, taking place September 7-10, 2025, in Lisbon, Portugal.
  • There often is overlap especially in the areas of UV LED and UV technology advances at the 2025 RadTech UV&EB Technology & Conference, taking place on May 18-21, 2025, in Detroit, Michigan.

The 40th Annual WateReuse™ Symposium will be held March 16-19, 2025 in Tampa, Florida, USA and has an interesting workshop co-sponsored by IUVA on March 16, 2025, which will address “Diving into the Details: Applying UV-AOP to Meet Reuse Objectives” and “Monitoring the Dynamic Water Quality of UV/Cl2 AOP Systems.”

As of this writing the preliminary program for AWWA ACE 25 (American Water Works Association Annual Conference and Exposition) is not yet fully released but is expected to be available in late February 2025. The conference will take place from June 8-11, 2025, in Denver, Colorado, at the Colorado Convention Center and always features several interesting presentations and workshops related to UV technology.

Recent Publications Related to UV Technology and “One Water”

Continuing this quarter, multiple scientific search engines have been used to identify peer-reviewed papers that may be of interest to professionals working in the UV technology for “One Water” segment. This quarter’s search identified ~120,000 citations, therefore certain criteria (published in the past six months, most cited articles, timeliness of topic relative to reader interests (e.g., UV LEDs, forever chemicals, emerging pathogens of interest) and/or the quality of the journal publishing the work) were used to produce the following list, capped at 20:

  1. Real-time water quality monitoring using AI-enabled sensors: Detection of contaminants and UV disinfection analysis in smart urban water systems. Durgun, Yeliz Journal of King Saud University. Science, 2024-10, Vol.36 (9), p.103409, Article 103409
  2. Effects of Fe(III) on the formation and toxicity alteration of halonitromethanes, dichloroacetonitrile, and dichloroacetamide from polyethyleneimine during UV/chlorine disinfection Huang, Tingting ; Deng, Lin ; Wang, Shui ; Tan, Chaoqun ; Hu, Jun ; Zhu, Bingqing ; Li, Mengya ; Lu, Lianghua ; Yin, Zhihua ; Fu, Bowen Water research (Oxford), 2024-08, Vol.259, p.121844, Article 121844
  3. Robust optimization of a novel ultraviolet (UV) photoreactor for water disinfection: A neural network approach Seyedin, Mahla; Hassanpour, Amirhossein; Jalali, Alireza; Raisee, Mehrdad Chemosphere (Oxford), 2024-08, Vol.362, p.142788, Article 142788
  4. Feasibility study of UV intensity monitoring in water disinfection systems using reverse-biased LED photometers Pousty, D.; Gerchman, Y.; Mamane, H., Energy advances, 2024-09, Vol.3 (9), p.2407-2415
  5. UV LED wastewater disinfection: The future is upon us MacIsaac, Sean A; Reid, Bailey; Ontiveros, Carolina; Linden, Karl G; Stoddart, Amina K; Gagnon, Graham A Water Research X, 2024-09, Vol.24, p.100236, Article 100236
  6. Control of Aromatic Disinfection Byproducts in Potable Reuse Water by the UV 222 /H 2 O 2 vs UV 254 /H 2 O 2 Advanced Oxidation Processes Zhao, Jing; Gong, Weiran; Yin, Ran; Shang, Chii; Mitch, William A; Environmental science & technology, 2024-09, Vol.58 (35), p.15846-15854
  7. Far-UVC 222 nm Treatment: Effects of Nitrate/Nitrite on Disinfection Byproduct Formation Potential Xu, Jiale; Kann, Ryan J; Mohammed, Dauda; Huang, Ching-Hua; Environmental science & technology, 2024-08, Vol.58 (34), p.15311-15320
  8. Biofilm inactivation using LED systems emitting germicidal UV and antimicrobial blue light Pousty, Dana; Ma, Ben; Mathews, Christian; Halanur, Manohara; Mamane, Hadas; Linden, Karl G. 2024 Dec 1:267:122449. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2024.122449. Epub 2024 Sep 15
  9. Domestic wastewater treatment towards reuse by “self-supplied” microbial electrochemical system assisted UV/H2O2 process; Yang, Kaichao; Abu-Reesh, Ibrahim M.; He, Zhen; Water research (Oxford), 2024-12, Vol.267, p.122504, Article 122504
  10. Efficacy of UVC-LED radiation in bacterial, viral, and protozoan inactivation: an assessment of the influence of exposure doses and water quality; Freitas, Bárbara Luíza Souza; Fava, Natália Melo de Nasser; Melo-Neto, Murilo Guilherme de; Dalkiranis, Gustavo Gonçalves; Tonetti, Adriano Luiz; Byrne, John Anthony; Fernandez-Ibañez, Pilar; Sabogal-Paz, Lyda Patricia; Water research (Oxford), 2024-11, Vol.266, p.122322, Article 122322
  11. Concerning Toxic Byproducts and Full-Scale UV/Chlorine Advanced Oxidation Water Treatment Moore, N; Zollbrecht, N; Hofmann, R Nov 5, 2024, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, 58 (46), pp.20710-20718
  12. Action of chlorine, peracetic acid, UV/LED radiation, and advanced oxidation process on Giardia lamblia cysts for reclaimed water production, Leonel, LP and Tonetti, AL, 2024 Nov 2024, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
  13. Assessment of the efficacy of bacterial inactivation by combination treatment with peracetic acid and UVC light-emitting diode and elucidation of the bactericidal mechanism. Kang, MJ; Ha, JH; Kim, D, Dec 2024, FOOD BIOSCIENCE
  14. Deciphering the degradation of sulfonamides by UV/chlorination in aqueous solution: kinetics, reaction pathways, and toxicological evolution. Bano, S; Shad, A; (…); Allam, AA, Sep 1, 2024, ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
  15. The fate of intracellular and extracellular antibiotic resistance genes during ultrafiltration-ultraviolet-chlorination in a full-scale wastewater treatment plant. Li, Xuan; Zhang, Zehao; (…); Wang, Qilin, 2025-jan-Journal of hazardous materials, 486, pp.137088
  16. Water Disinfection with Dual-Wavelength (222+275 nm) Ultraviolet Radiations: Microbial Inactivation and Reactivation. Sun, Z; Li, MK; (…); Qiang, ZM, 2025Jan 2025 (Early Access), ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
  17. The photo-based treatment technology simultaneously removes resistant bacteria and resistant genes from wastewater. Guo, Zicong; Tang, Xiang; (…); Xiong, Weiping, 2025-feb, Journal of environmental sciences (China)
  18. Microplastics Exacerbated Conjugative Transfer of Antibiotic Resistance Genes during Ultraviolet Disinfection: Highlighting Difference between Conventional and Biodegradable Ones, Zhang, XR; Wang, J; Jia, HZ. 2024Dec 2024 (Early Access). ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
  19. On-Site Inactivation for Disinfection of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in Hospital Effluent by UV and UV-LED, Azuma, T; Usui, M; (…); Hayashi, T., Aug 2024, ANTIBIOTICS-BASEL
  20. Effect of coil diameter on water disinfection efficiency in a helical photoreactor using ultraviolet-C light emitting diodes. Wang, CP; Chang, YC; Jia, Q., Jan 15, 2025, ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY 46 (2), pp.279-288

References

  1. UV Water Treatment Systems Market Size, Share, Growth And Industry Analysis, By Type (Below 20 GPM, 20-100 GPM & Above 100 GPM), By Application (Municipal, Industrial, Residential & Commercial), Regional Insights and Forecast To 2032, https://www.businessresearchinsights.com/market-reports/uv-water-treatment-systems-market-107910

 

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