Patent ID: 8709261

Claim:
A liquid disinfection system having built-in monitoring capabilities, the system comprising: a conduit to carry flowing liquid to be disinfected, wherein the conduit comprises an inlet to receive the liquid, an outlet to discharge the liquid and walls transparent to ultraviolet radiation; an illumination source located in the conduit within a light-transparent sleeve, said transparent sleeve is to be immersed in the flowing liquid, and the illumination source is to disinfect the liquid passing through the conduit; a first light detector located externally to the conduit to detect light emitted by the illumination source; a second light detector located externally to the conduit to detect light emitted by the illumination source; and a controller configured to receive in real-time a first detected signal from the first detector and a second detected signal from the second detector and to calculate on-line in real-time an ultraviolet light transmittance (UVT) value of the liquid based on the first and second detected signals, the controller further configured to calculate in real time an efficiency parameter of the illumination source based on the UVT value and one of the first and second detected signals, wherein the length of a first light path between the illumination source and the first light detector within the liquid is smaller than the length of a second light path between the illumination source and second light detector within the liquid.