Reduction of disinfection by-product precursors in reservoir water by coagulation and ultrafiltration.

Abstract

In this study, reservoir water intended for drinking water supply was treated by (i) ultrafiltration (UF) (ii) coagulation (CW) (iii) coagulation combined with ultrafiltration (CW-UF). To probe the influences of three treatment processes on disinfection byproduct (DBP) precursors in source water, the changes of dissolved organic matter (DOM) amounts and physicochemical properties, and disinfection byproduct (DBP) formation characteristics during chlorine disinfection were investigated. Both carbonaceous DBP (C-DBP) and nitrogenous DBP (N-DBP) formation and speciation were analyzed. The influence of chlorine dose, contact time on DBP formation and speciation were also studied to optimize the disinfection conditions to minimize the DBP formation. Compared with UF and CW alone, CW-UF improved the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) removal from about 20% to 59%. The three-dimensional excitation and emission matrix (3DEEM) fluorescence spectroscopy analysis showed that CW-UF had high removal efficiency in microbial products (Region IV), fulvic acid-like (Region III) and humic acid-like (Region V). The total C-DBP was determined by the formation of trihalomethanes and trichloromethane was the most abundant species (40%). The most abundant N-DBP species was dichloroacetonitrile (32.5%), followed by trichloroactetonitrile. CW-UF effectively reduced the risk of DBPs in drinking water supply by reducing 30.8% and 16.9% DBPs formation potential compared with UF and CW alone. Increasing contact time improved the yields of both C-DBPs and N-DBPs. Chlorine dosage had slight influence on DBP yield in this study.