• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.211-219
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• 2012

To enhance the efficiency of water treatment and reduce the extent of membrane fouling, the membrane separation process is frequently preceded by other physico-chemical processes. One of them might be ion exchange. The aim of this work was to compare the efficiency of natural organic matter removal achieved with various anion-exchange resins, and to verify their potential use in water treatment prior to the ultrafiltration process involving a ceramic membrane. The use of ion exchange prior to ceramic membrane ultrafiltration enhanced final water quality. The most effective was MIEX, which removed significant amounts of the VHA, SHA and CHA fractions. Separation of uncharged fractions was poor with all the resins examined. Water pretreatment involving an ion-exchange resin failed to reduce membrane fouling, which was higher than that observed in unpretreated water. This finding is to be attributed to the uncharged NOM fractions and small resin particles that persisted in the water.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.719-726
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• 2006

Adsorption isotherms and kinetics for taste and odor (T&O) compounds and natural organic matters (NOMs) were performed to evaluate the impacts of activated carbon particle size on coagulation and adsorption. Adsorption capacities for iodine, T&O compounds, and NOM of all the activated carbons under #325 mesh were more excellent than those of virgin activated carbons. Small activated carbon particles were more rapidly adsorbed low molecular weight T&O compounds in the water, while those were slowly adsorbed high molecular weight NOM. When the activated carbon and alum were added simultaneously, the adsorption capacity for organics was better than alum was added alone.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.224-230
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• 2007

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the change of molecular weight (MW) profiles in natural organic matter (NOM) through various treatment processes (coagulation, granular activated carbon (GAC), and ozonation) using high performance size exclusion chromatography based on ultraviolet absorbance and dissolved organic detection (HPSEC-UVA-DOC). In addition, relationships between MW profiles and disinfection by-production (DBP) formation were evaluated. Each treatment process results in significant different effects on NOM profiles. Coagulation is effective to remove high molecular weight NOM, while GAC is effective to remove low molecular weight NOM. Ozonation removes only a small portion of NOM, while it induces a significant reduction of UV absorbance due to breakdown of the aromatic groups. All treated waters are chlorinated, and chlorination DBPs such as trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) are measured under formation potential conditions. Both THM and HAA formation potentials were significantly reduced through the coagulation process. GAC was more effective to reduce THM formation compared to HAA formation reduction, while ozonation showed significant HAA reduction compared to THM reduction.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.563-568
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• 2015

Natural Organic Matter (NOM) is a precursor of disinfection by products. Recently, with the increase in NOM concentration caused by a large amount of algae, the creation of disinfection by-products is becoming a big issue. Therefore, in this study, PAC+Membrane+F/A hybrid process was organized to control disinfection by-products in small-scale water treatment plants. The optimal dosage of PAC was set at 20 mg/L through Lab. scale test. Also, it is judged that NOM concentration must be less than 1.0 mg/L to meet the recommended criteria of drinking water quality monitoring items of disinfection by-products during chlorination. The existing conventional water treatment process was compared to the independent F/A process and the PAC+Membrane+F/A hybrid process through pilot plant operation, and the result showed that there is a need to apply an advanced water treatment process to remove not only NOMs but also Geosmin caused by algae. Accordingly, it is considered that applying the PAC+Membrane+F/A process will help in controling a clogged filter caused by a large amount of algae and disinfection by-products created by chlorination and can be used as an advanced water treatment process to meet the recommended criteria of drinking water quality monitoring items.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.91-99
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• 2007

It is well-known that the presence of NOM (natural organic matter) in water has a negative effect on removing taste and odor compounds by activated carbon adsorption. Therefore, various means such as enhanced coagulation are applied to reduce the NOM. The presence of taste & odor compounds in drinking water even parts per trillion, is enough to generate customer dissatisfaction. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate carbon usage rate (CUR) for conventional coagulation (CC) and enhanced coagulation (EC) in order to improve the efficiency of adsorption of taste and odor compounds. Also, Effect of CC and EC on molecular weight fraction and the early stage breakthrough of 2-MIB and Geosmin are evaluated. When the enhanced coagulation was adapted for pretreatment for activated carbon adsorption the operation period could be prolonged by 3.5~4 times. CUR for CC was about 2 times greater than CUR for EC and this means that EC has more adsorption capacity than CC. To analyze effect of EC and CC on breakthrough of 2-MIB quantitatively, adsorbed NOM mass was calculated based on unit mass of activated carbon. In the early stage breakthrough of 2-MIB, total adsorbed NOM was 23.72mg/g for CC and 34.56mg/g for EC. Therefore, it is shown that the early breakthrough term of 2-MIB and Geosmin was improved due to increased adsorbability. The low-molecular-weight NOM (500~2000Da) compounds were the most competitive, participating in direct competition with 2-MIB for adsorption site.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.1153-1160
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• 2013

While a range of natural organic matter (NOM) types can generate high levels of disinfection by-products (DBPs) after chlorination, there is little understanding of which specific compounds act as precursors. Use of eight model compounds allows linking of explicit properties to treatability and DBP formation potential (DBPFP). The removal of model compounds by various treatment processes and their haloacetic acid formation potential (HAAFP) before and after treatment were recorded. The model compounds comprised a range of hydrophobic (HPO) and hydrophilic (HPI) neutral and anionic compounds. On the treatment processes, an ozone oxidation process was moderate for control of model compounds, while the HPO-neutral compound was most treatable with activated carbon process. Biodegradation was successful in removing amino acids, while coagulation and ion exchange process had little effect on neutral molecules. Although compared with the HPO compounds the HPI compounds had low HAAFP the ozone oxidation and biodegradation were capable of increasing their HAAFP. In situations where neutral or HPI molecules have high DBPFP additional treatments may be required to remove recalcitrant NOM and control DBPs.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.805-813
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• 2013

In this study, molecular size distribution of natural organic matter (NOM) after ozonation was measured and its effect on adsorption capacity of activated carbon was investigated. According to the results, the molecular size of NOM was limitedly changed. Specifically, the molecular size of NOM between 5,000 to 10,000 Da were slightly decreased with increasing ozone doses. The adsorption capacity after ozonation was evaluated using Freundlich isotherm with ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST) which simulated the multi components adsorption. Further, mini-column test was conducted. The Freundlich constant, K was reduced after ozonation and the non-adsorbable fraction was increased with ozonation. However, no correlation between K and ozone doses was found. The present study also agreed with the correlation between adsorption capacity and pore size characteristics of activated carbon.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.723-730
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• 2011

In this experiment, persulfate, a strong oxidant for ISCO (In-Situ Chemical Oxidation) was used to degraded RDX in artificial ground water at ambient temperature. Results of RDX degradation by persulfate in a batch reactor showed that the oxidation reaction was pseudo first order with estimated Ea (activation energy) of $1.14{\times}10^2kJ/mol$ and the rate was increased with the increase of reaction temperature. The oxidation of RDX by persulfate increased slightly with the increase of initial solution pH from 4 to 8. The RDX oxidation rate increased 13 times at pH 10 compared with that at pH 4, however, alkaline hydrolysis was found to be the main reaction of RDX degradation rather than oxidation. The study also showed that the oxidation rate of RDX by persulfate was linearly dependent upon the molar ratios of persulfate to RDX from 5 : 1 up to 100 : 1, with a proportion constant of $4{\times}10^{-4}$ ($min^{-1}$/molar ratio) at $70^{\circ}C$. While NOM (Natural Organic Matter) exerted negative effects on the oxidation rate of RDX by persulfate, with a proportion constant of $1.21{\times}10^{-4}$ ($min^{-1}{\cdot}L/mg-NOM$) at $70^{\circ}C$ and persulfate/NOM molar ratio of 10/1. The decrease in RDX oxidation rate was linearly dependent upon the added NOM concentration. However, the estimated activation energy in the presence of 20 mg-NOM/L was within 3.3% error compared to that without NOM, which implies the addition of NOM does not alter intrinsic oxidation reaction.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.128-135
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• 2019

This study evaluates the effect of dissolved effluent organic matter (SE-dEfOM) from sewage wastewater treatment plants on the adsorption and estrogenic activity of bisphenol A (BPA). Specific ultraviolet absorbance and fluorescence index analyses indicated that SE-dEfOM was mainly microbially derived non-humic substances differed from Suwannee River natural organic matter (SR-NOM) as reference. Both Langmuir and Freundlich models successfully explained the adsorption of BPA onto both SE-dEfOM and SR-NOM. Additionally, the SE-dEfOM showed higher binding capacities and affinities for BPA than those of SR-NOM, resulting in better reduction of the estrogenic activity of BPA. These findings suggest that the binding and toxicity of BPA are largely dependent on the source of organic matters.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.269-276
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• 2015

This study investigated the influence of characteristics of natural organic matter (NOM) on the formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs), and proposed the control strategies of DBPs formation in a drinking water treatment plant using lake water in Gyeongsangbuk-do. The fluorescence excitation-emission matrix analysis results revealed that the origins of NOM in raw waters to the plant were a mixture of terrestrial and microbial sources. Molecular size distributions and removals of NOM fractions were evaluated with a liquid chromatography-organic carbon detector (LC-OCD) analysis. Humic substances and low molecular weight organics were dominant fractions of NOM in the raw water. High molecular weight organics were relatively easier to remove through coagulation/precipitation than low molecular weight organics. The concentrations of DBPs formed by pre-chlorination increased through the treatment processes in regular sequence due to longer reaction time. Chloroform (74%) accounts for the largest part of trihalomethanes, followed by bromodichloromethane (22%) and dibromochloromethane (4%). Dichloroacetic acid (50%) and trichloroacetic acid (48%) were dominant species of haloacetic acids, and brominated species such as dibromoacetic acid (2%) were minimal or none. Dichloroacetonitrile (60%) accounts for the largest part of haloacetonitriles, followed by bromochloroacetonitrile (30%) and dibromoacetonitrile (10%). The formation of DBPs were reduced by 16~44% as dosages of pre-chlorine decreased. Dosages of pre-chlorine was more contributing to DBPs formation than variations of dissolved organic contents or water temperature.