Formation and distribution of disinfection by-products during chlorine disinfection in the presence of bromide ion

Abstract

The influences of contact time and pH value on the formation and distribution of four species of trihalomethanes and five species of haloacetic acids during chlorination in the presence of bromine were investigated. Results showed that the distribution of molar fraction of trihalomethanes varied with contact time due to the change of bromide ion concentration during chlorination. Most of the trihalomethanes comprising bromine-containing species and the favored products of the haloacetic acids were chlorine-containing species after 24 h of chlorination. The extent of bromine incorporation in trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids both decreased with time. The contact time also had influence on the formation rate of different species of haloacetic acids. The formation and distribution of trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids strongly depended on the chlorination pH value. All of the trihalomethanes species formation increased with the increase of pH value except the bromoform that had not been detected. The molar fraction of bromodichloromethane and dibromochloromethane containing bromine increased with pH value while chloroform without bromine decreased. Under the pH range studied in this experiment, the predominant haloacetic acids species were trichloroacetic acid and dichloroacetic acid which all decreased with the increase of pH value and the level of TCAA was higher than that of DCAA.