Abstract
Natural organic matter (NOM) occurs in all natural water sources when animal and plant material breaks down. NOM in water may react with chlorine and other disinfectants to produce disinfection by-products (DBPs), many of which are either carcinogenic or mutagenic. In this study the NOM content of the raw water from the Vaalkop Water Treatment Plant (which uses both chlorination and ozonation as treatment protocols) was characterised after fractionation on ion-exchange resins. Fractionation at different pH values resulted in the isolation of a neutral, a basic and an acidic component of either predominantly hydrophobic or hydrophilic NOM. In addition, NOM results from 3 open water bodies in Johannesburg were evaluated in the same manner. As expected, NOM from all water sources was predominantly hydrophobic (~60%). Each of the 6 isolated NOM fractions was percolated through synthetic cyclodextrin (CD) polyurethanes to determine the extent to which the CD polymers can remove NOM from water. The hydrophobic basic fraction and the hydrophilic acid fraction were most efficiently removed (24% and 10%, respectively). The remaining fractions were not much affected by the polymer treatment.
Highlights
Natural organic matter (NOM) occurs in all natural water sources when animal and plant material breaks down
We have previously reported on the use of cyclodextrin polyurethanes for the generation of ultra-pure water in the power industry (Mamba et al, 2008) mainly through the removal of some of these small organic fragments
The specific UV absorbance (SUVA) was used as an Finigduicrae-1: An IR spectrumasdsioscpilaatyeidngwtithhetfhuenNctOioMnainl grraowuwpsamterainly associated with the NOM tion of the amount of humic substances versus non-humic substances in the water samples
Summary
Natural organic matter (NOM) occurs in all natural water sources when animal and plant material breaks down. Fractionation at different pH values resulted in the isolation of a neutral, a basic and an acidic component of either predominantly hydrophobic or hydrophilic NOM. Natural organic matter (NOM) present in most water bodies may react with chlorine or other disinfectants to produce disinfection by-products (DBPs), many of which are either carcinogenic or mutagenic (Xie 2003). NOM occurs in all water sources when animal and plant material breaks down Since this material is different worldwide, so too is the NOM present in each body of water. Colloidal natural organic matter contains relatively polar amino sugars and may exhibit high membrane fouling potential due to its neutrality
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