Removal of micropollutants and cyanobacteria from drinking water using KMnO4 pre-oxidation coupled with bioaugmentation

Abstract

Increasing micropollutant and cyanobacterial contamination of drinking water threatens human health worldwide. However, these contaminates are not efficiently removed by common drinking water treatment processes, and thus additional treatments are frequently required. Recent investigations have demonstrated that KMnO4 pre-oxidation can efficiently remove some micropollutants and cyanobacteria but the release of cyanobacterial toxins and Mn2+ limit its use. To overcome these problems, we proposed a KMnO4 pre-oxidation coupled with bioaugmentation (e.g., sand filtration) method to treat micropollutant- and cyanobacteria-laden water. We used 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone-5-sulfonic acid (BP-4, a common micropollutant in drinking water sources) and Microcystis aeruginosa (a widely distributed cyanobacterial species) as model pollutants to verify the feasibility of the proposed method. Results revealed that KMnO4 pre-oxidation efficiently removed existing natural organic matter and Microcystis aeruginosa but failed to remove BP-4 and released Mn2+ and microcystin-LR (MC-LR) during treatment. Following the addition of a manganese-oxidizing bacterial strain (Pseudomonas sp. QJX-1) to the KMnO4-treated solution, we found that the bacteria could transform Mn2+ to Mn(III&IV) oxides, with the formed Mn oxides then able to remove BP-4 and MC-LR. Overall, the proposed method exhibited advantages in the removal of natural organic matter (i.e., decreasing disinfection byproduct formation), micropollutants, and cyanobacteria as well as preventing the release of Mn2+, and thus may be considered a good alternative for treating polluted drinking water.