Abstract
Chemical disinfection of surface waters has been proven effective in minimizing the risk of contamination by water-borne pathogens. However, surface waters contain natural organic matter (NOM) which, upon chemical disinfection, is readily converted into hazardous disinfection-by-products. Hence, NOM removal from these waters is critical. Chemical coagulation is a readily implementable technology to minimize these undesired side-effects by NOM removal. Herein, capabilities of ferric chloride (FeCl3) and polyaluminum chloride (PACl) as pre-treatment for NOM abatement from natural raw surface water have been benchmarked. Excitation-emission fluorescence matrix (EEM) spectroscopy characterization of NOM fractions demonstrated high removal efficiency. A two-level full factorial design was employed to analyze the effects of coagulant dosage and initial pH on the removal of turbidity, humic acid-like substances and fulvic acid-like substances from the raw water. Higher removal of ~77% NOM was attained with PACl than with FeCl3 (~72%). Optimization through response surface methodology showed that the initial pH—coagulant dosage interaction was significant in removing NOM and turbidity for both PACl and FeCl3. These results identify the opportunity for coagulation technologies to prevent and minimize disinfection-by-products formation through NOM removal.
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