Development of a Site-Specific Kinetic Model for Chlorine Decay and the Formation of Chlorination By-Products in Seawater

Abstract

Chlorine is used commonly to prevent biofouling in cooling water systems. The addition of chlorine poses environmental risks in natural systems due to its tendency to form chlorination by-products (CBPs) when exposed to naturally-occurring organic matter (NOM). Some of these CBPs can pose toxic risks to aquatic and benthic species in the receiving waters. It is, therefore, important to study the fate of residual chlorine and CBPs to fully understand the potential impacts of chlorination to the environment. The goal of this study was to develop improved predictions of how chlorine and CBP concentrations in seawater vary with time, chlorine dose and temperature. In the present study, chlorination of once-through cooling water at Ras Laffan Industrial City (RLIC), Qatar, was studied by collecting unchlorinated seawater from the RLIC cooling water system intake, treating it with chlorine and measuring time series of chlorine and CBP concentrations. Multiple-rate exponential curves were used to represent fast and slow chlorine decay and CBP formation, and site-specific chlorine kinetic relationships were developed. Through extensive analysis of laboratory measurements, it was found that only some of the control parameters identified in the literature were important for predicting residual chlorine and CBP concentrations for this specific location. The new kinetic relationships were able to significantly improve the predictability and validity of Generalized Environmental Modeling System for Surfacewaters (GEMSS)-chlorine kinetics module (CKM), a three-dimensional hydrodynamic and chlorine kinetics and transport model when applied for RLIC outfall studies using actual field measurements.