Natural Organic Matter and Disinfection By-products Formation Potential in Water Treatment

The performance of a conventional sequence (pre-ozonation, coagulation/flocculation/sedimentation, filtration, disinfection) and two non-conventional sequences (pre-ozonation, nanofiltration; and pre-ozonation, coagulation/flocculation/sedimentation, nanofiltration) on the removal of natural organic matter (NOM) and disinfection by-products (DBPs) formation potential was evaluated. Raw and treated waters were characterized in terms of molecular weight, which includes the amount of NOM removed and the qualitative changes in the NOM characteristics (molecular weight and hydrophobicity) since they could be directly related with the DBPs formation. The results demonstrate that, for the type of raw water analysed (hydrophilic with low dissolved organic carbon content, 0.99 L/(mg.m) and 1.31 mg DOC/L), both treatment sequences remove larger molecular weight compounds (>1,900 g/mol). Treated waters have the dominant fractions in the smaller molecular size fractions (<750 g/mol). However, the sequences with nanofiltration have a higher percentage of low molecular weight compounds removed (between 430 and 250 g/mol), when compared with conventional sequence, thus the water from nanofiltration sequences will have lower DBPs formation potential. The removal of the smallest molecular size fractions can be enhanced by optimising the water treatment process and the quality of water will improve relating with DBPs formation.