Iranian Researcher Produce Mug to Disinfect Water with Ultraviolet Radiation

Farshid Chini, a professor at the University of Tehran (UT), said in an interview with Iran's media that the Ultraviolet (UV) water disinfection mug is a knowledge-based product that was designed and produced based on a thesis project worked on by UT students and professors at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

“This mug is designed in a way that by placing ultraviolet diodes in the lid and passing ultraviolet radiation through the water inside the mug, pathogenic agents are completely eliminated and disabled,” the professor said.

He further explained how the mug disinfects the water, saying, “After filling the mug with water, the lid is placed on the mug and the user presses the ultraviolet activation button. In less than a minute, the water disinfection process is completely done and the water becomes drinkable.”

“The power needed to disinfect half a liter of water in a mug by boiling is almost 7,000 times more than the power used by a mug equipped with an ultraviolet diode. Also, the water inside the mug can be drunk immediately without waiting for it to cool down,” the researcher also said.

He further noted that UV disinfection mug can be highly useful for people who care much about the quality of the water they drink.

Chini added that the product is particularly useful for mountaineers and climbers or paramedics who often have to use water disinfectant tablets when access to drinking water is difficult, and for mothers who have to boil water for their babies.

“Designing, manufacturing and testing proccesses of the product have been completed, therefore,the research team is waiting for the offers from investors to enter mass production phase,” he continued.

Furthermore, Alireza Jalali, one of the supervising professors of the student research pointed to the advantages of the UV mug as compared to the other disinfecting methods, saying that there are two different broadly used methods to disinfect water: one is chemical and the other is physical.

“Chlorination is one of the most widely used chemical processes of water disinfection, which leads to changes in the taste and smell of water. Moreover, the reaction of oxidizing substances with some compounds found in water and the water transmission system leads to the emergence of substances that are harmful to human health. Water disinfected with chlorine loses its antimicrobial properties after a while and lays a suitable ground for the emergence and spread of pathogenic agents,” he said.

“In physical methods, factors such as boiling or irradiating disinfectant rays to water are used to inactivate pathogenic agents. In these methods, water quality does not change,” Jalali added. 

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