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Impact of ozonation and biologically enhanced activated carbon filtration on the composition of micropollutants in drinking water

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Abstract

A pilot-scale drinking water treatment process for Songhua River, including conventional treatment (coagulation-settlement and rapid sand filtration), ozonation, biological enhanced activated carbon (BEAC) filtration, and chlorination disinfection, was carried out in this study. To investigate the impact of ozonation and BEAC filtration on removing the composition of micropollutants in drinking water, we detected the micropollutant composition from each stage of the treatment process by non-targeted analysis using a GC-MS technique and compared the results between effluents of single BEAC and O3-BEAC processes. Aromatic compounds and esters could be abated efficiently during single BEAC filtration via biodegradation and adsorption; however, possible metabolic products (i.e., alkenes) were formed by biodegradation. Comparatively, O3-BEAC process could reduce micropollutants much more significantly than single BEAC process especially for aromatic compounds including substituted benzenes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) without the formation of metabolic products through the coupling effect of oxidation, biodegradation, and adsorption, suggesting that ozonation improved the removal potential of micropollutants in the BEAC process. In addition, conventional and novel chlorinated disinfection by-products were also measured during post-chlorination.

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Acknowledgements

The present research was carried out at State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and the School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation, China (grant number 51578178).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin, China

    Wei-Guang Li

  2. School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China

    Wei-Guang Li, Wen Qin, Yang Song, Ze-Jia Zheng & Long-Yi Lv

  3. School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, People’s Republic of China

    Wen Qin

  4. Research Institute of Environmental Studies at Greater Bay, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Yang Song

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  1. Wei-Guang Li
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  2. Wen Qin
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  3. Yang Song
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  4. Ze-Jia Zheng
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  5. Long-Yi Lv
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Wei-Guang Li or Wen Qin.

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Responsible editor: Bingcai Pan

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Li, WG., Qin, W., Song, Y. et al. Impact of ozonation and biologically enhanced activated carbon filtration on the composition of micropollutants in drinking water. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26, 33927–33935 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2700-0

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