Pulsed UV lamp performance and comparison with UV mercury lamps

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Abstract
Pulsed lamps based on electric discharges in xenon are of interest for water treatment because they are free of mercury, have instant-on capability, and may provide enhanced effects due to the high irradiance of pulses or spectral differences. This study provides quantitative comparisons of standard mercury UV lamps with both a commercial flashlamp and a pulsed surface discharge lamp. Unlike mercury lamps, the UV performance of pulsed lamps is a function of operating parameters. In this study the measured UV efficiency of a flashlamp, with a specified practical lifetime, increased as the pulse length decreased, from 4.4% at 796 μs to 9.0% at 71 μs. The surface discharge lamp, which overcomes limitations of flashlamps, had a measured UV efficiency of 17% at 12 μs. In comparison, standard commercial low pressure and medium pressure mercury lamps evaluated in this study had UV efficiencies of 34.6% and 12.2%, respectively.