Threshold levels for bromate formation in drinking water

Ozone is a sufficiently strong oxidant to cause the oxidation of bromide ion and formation of bromate ion. In this study, bromate ion formation in a wide variety of drinking water sources was analyzed, with bromate ion formed in all sources under drinking water treatment conditions. Threshold levels for pH, bromide ion concentration, and ozone dose were found to be source-specific. Two non-linear empirical models were developed to predict bromate ion formation; these models are easy to use and require only several water quality and treatment variables. The models were tested against several literature data and a good simulation was found in other bench-scale tests, whereas the model tended to under-predict bromate ion formation in pilot-scale and full-scale programs.