Detection and Identification of Organic Pollutants in Drinking Water from Fluorescence Spectra Based on Deep Learning Using Convolutional Autoencoder

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Three dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy has become increasingly useful in the detection of organic pollutants. However, this approach is limited by decreased accuracy in identifying low concentration pollutants. In this research, a new identification method for organic pollutants in drinking water is accordingly proposed using three-dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy data and a deep learning algorithm. A novel application of a convolutional autoencoder was designed to process high-dimensional fluorescence data and extract multi-scale features from the spectrum of drinking water samples containing organic pollutants. Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), an implementation of gradient-boosted decision trees, was used to identify the organic pollutants based on the obtained features. Method identification performance was validated on three typical organic pollutants in different concentrations for the scenario of accidental pollution. Results showed that the proposed method achieved increasing accuracy, in the case of both high-(>10 μg/L) and low-(≤10 μg/L) concentration pollutant samples. Compared to traditional spectrum processing techniques, the convolutional autoencoder-based approach enabled obtaining features of enhanced detail from fluorescence spectral data. Moreover, evidence indicated that the proposed method maintained the detection ability in conditions whereby the background water changes. It can effectively reduce the rate of misjudgments associated with the fluctuation of drinking water quality. This study demonstrates the possibility of using deep learning algorithms for spectral processing and contamination detection in drinking water.