Although disinfection in drinking water treatment plants provides a safer water supply by inactivating pathogenic microorganisms, harmful disinfection by-products may be formed. In this study, the disinfectant, chlorine, was produced on-site from the electrolysis of salt (NaCl), and the by-products of the disinfection process, bromate and chlorate, were analyzed. The provisional guideline levels for bromate and chlorate in drinking water are 10 μg/L and 700 μg/L, in Korea, respectively. Bromide salt was detected at concentrations ranging from 6.0 ~ 622 mg/kg. Bromate and chlorate were detected at concentrations ranging from non-detect (ND) ~ 45.3mg/L and 40.5 ~ 1,202 mg/L, respectively. When comparing the bromide concentration in the salt to the bromate concentration in the chlorine produced by salt electrolysis, the correlation of bromide to bromate concentration was 0.870 (active chlorine concentration from on-site production: 0.6–0.8%, n=40). The correlation of bromate concentration in the chlorine produced to that in the treated water was 0.866.

Study on effluent organic matter (EfOM) characteristic and removal efficiency is required, because EfOM is important in regard to the stability of effluents reuse, quality issues of artificial recharge and water conservation of aqueous system. UV technology is widely used in wastewater treatment. Many reports have been conducted on microbial disinfection and micro pollutant reduction with UV treatment. However, the study on EfOM with UV has limited because low/medium pressure UV lamp is not sufficient to affect refractory organics. The high intensity of pulsed UV would mineralize EfOM itself as well as change the characteristics of EfOM. Chlorine demand and DBPs formation is affected on the changed amounts and properties of EfOM. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect on EfOM, chlorine residual, and chlorinated DBPs formation with low pressure and pulsed UV treatment. The removal of organic matter through low pressure UV treatment is insignificant effect. Pulsed UV treatment effectively removes/transforms EfOM. As a result, the chlorine consumption is changed and chlorine DBPs formation is decreased. However, excessive UV treatment caused problems of increasing chlorine consumption and generating unknown by-products.

It has been confirmed that some Trihalomethanes (THMs) suspected as carcinogens, can be formed during chlorination for water supply through the reaction of chlorine and humic substances in water. The electrochemical characteristics on activated carbon fiber filter (ACF) electrode were investigated to remove the THMs in the chlorination process of drinking water. The electrochemical removal efficiency depended on the applied voltage and flow rate. In this study, the best result showed that the removal efficiency of THMs was higher than 99%.

Formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs) including trihalomethans (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) from chlorination of six different species (Chlorella vulgaris, Scenedesmus sp., Anabaena cylindrical, Microcystis aeruginosa, Asterionella formosa and Aulacoseira sp.) of algal extracellular organic matter (EOM). The EOM characteristics evaluation of six algal species reaching at the stationary phase in the growth curve showed most of its SUVA254 showed below 1 and this means hydrophilic organic matter is much higher than hydrophobic organic matter. Chloroform formation potential (CFFP), dichloroacetic acid formation potential (DCAAFP) and trichloroacetic acid formation potential (TCAAFP) were mainly composed of THMFP and HAAFP in the EOM of various algal species. In the case of THMFP/DOC and HAAFP/DOC values, EOM of blue-green algae has appeared highest and EOM of green algae and diatom in order. THMFP/DOC was higher than HAAFP/DOC in EOM of blue-green algae. In comparison of formation potential by unit DOC composed of HAAFP in algal species EOM, DCAAFP/DOC was 1.5 times to 7.5 time higher than TCAAFP/DOC in the EOM of blue-green algae, while DCAAFP/DOC was found to be relatively high compared to TCAAFP/DOC in the EOM of green algae and diatom.

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.

This study was carried out to investigate the characteristics of disinfection by-products (DBPs-trihalomethanes (THMs), haloacetic acids (HAAs) and haloacetonitriles (HANs) formation in chlorination of principal raw waters used for drinking water on Jeju Island, Korea. The domestic water supply of other area and humic acid solution (HA) were used as a reference point. The effects of chlorine contact time, solution temperature and pH on DBPs formation potential (DBPFP) were investigated for raw waters. In addition, the effect of Br- was studied for HA. The DBPFP (THMFP, HAAFP and HANFP) were increased with increasing chlorine contact time. Comparing the individual DBPFPs for raw waters, they decreased in the order of HAAFP > THMFP ≥ HANFP. As the solution temperature was increased, the THMFP, HAAFP and HANFP increased. With increasing the solution pH, the THMFP was increased, but HAAFP and HANFP were decreased. With the addition of 0.3 mg/L Br- for HA, the DBPFP was increased and the major chemical species changed: from trichloromethane to dibromochloromethane and tribromomethane for THMs; from dichloroacetic acid and trichloroacetic acid to tribromoacetic acid for HAAs; and from dichloroacetonitrile to dibromoacetonitrile for HANs.

Formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs) including trihalomethans (THMs), haloacetic acid (HAAs), haloacetonitriles (HANs) and others from chlorination of algogenic organic matter (AOM) of Microcystis sp., a blue-green algae. AOM of Microcystis sp. exhibited a high potential for DBPs formation. HAAs formation potential was higher than THMs and HANs formation potential. The percentages of dichloroacetic acid (DCAA) and trichloroacetic acid (TCAA) formation potential were 43.4% and 51.4% in the total HAAs formation potential. In the case of HANs formation potential, percentage of dichloroacetonitrile (DCAN) formation potential was 97.7%. Other DBPs were aldehydes and nitriles such as acetaldehyde, methylene chloride, isobutyronitrile, cyclobutanecarbonitrile, pentanenitrile, benzaldehyde, propanal, 2-methyl, benzyl chloride, (2-chloroethyl)-benzene, benzyl nitrile, 2-probenenitrile and hexanal.

This research studied the effect of factors that are able to form disinfection by-products (DBPs) of chlorination, including natural organic matter (NOM) with sewage, bromide ions, pH and contact time. Trihalomethane (THMs) yield of 0.95 μmol/㎎ was higher than other DBPs yield for the chlorinated humic acid samples. THMs yield of sewage sample was 0.14 μmol/㎎ and haloacetonitriles (HANs) yield in the sewage samples were 0.13 μmol/㎎ but only 0.02 μmol/㎎ for the humic acid samples. As the concentration of bromide ions increased, brominated DBPs increased while chlorinated DBPs decreased, because bromide ions produce brominated DBPs. THMs were highest (55.55 ㎍/L) at a pH of 7.9 and haloacetic acids (HAAs) were highest (34.98 ㎍/L) at a pH of 5. Also THMs increased with increasing pH while HAAs decreased with increasing pH. After chlorination, the rate of THMs and HAA formation are faster at initial contact time and then reaches a nearly constant value after 24 hours. This study considers ways to reduce DBP formation by chlorination.

In order to research the adsorption removal characteristics of trace organic by-products in disinfection of drinking water by biological activated carbon(BAC), water samples disinfected with Cl_2, O_3 and ClO_2 after treatment by fluidized-bed system with water added with humic acid(l0㎎/L) were investigated the formation and the removal of trihalomethanes (THMs), and the trace organic by-products by gas chromatography(GC) & gas chromatography/mass selective detector(GC/MSD). Control was used by activated carbon(AC) and water added with hurnic acid(HA). The results were summarized as follow ; The THMs removal effect of BAC by chlorination was in lower 90 % than that of control(HA), the sorts of oxidants formed by Cl_2, O3 and ClO_2 were that O_3 was very fewer than Cl_2 or ClO_2 and that ClO_2 was fewer than Cl_2 The trace organic by-products were esters and phthalates etc. Based on results above, it is concluded that BAC was appeared the more desirable adsorption-degradation removal characteristics than that of AC.