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Implications for emergency response to the severe odor incident occurred in source water: Potential odorants and control strategy

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Abstract

Sudden odor incidents occurring in the source water have been a severe problem for water suppliers. In order to apply emergency control measures effectively, it is necessary to identify the target compounds responsible for odor incidents rapidly. The present work identified the odorants and explored emergency disposal mechanisms for sudden and severe odors in the QT River’s drinking water source (HZ city, China). Medicinal, chemical, septic, and musty odors with strong intensities were detected in the source water. The effect of conventional treatments of drinking water treatment plant (DWTP) on odors’ removal was limited, which was evident by the presence of medicinal, chemical, and musty odors with moderate intensities in the effluent of DWTP. Total seventeen odorants were identified successfully in the source water of QT River and the effluent of DWTP. The measured OAVs and reconstituting the identified odorants explained 87, 87, 89, and 94% of medicinal, chemical, septic, and musty odors, respectively, in the source water of the QT River and 90, 87, and 88% of medicinal, chemical, and musty odors in the effluent. Styrene, phenol, 2-chlorophenol, 2-tert-butylphenol, and 2-methylphenol were associated with the medicinal odor, while propyl sulfide, diethyl disulfide, propyl disulfide, and indole were related to the septic odor. Geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol (2-MIB) were responsible for the musty odor, and cyclohexanone, 1,4-dichlorobenzene, and nitrobenzene were involved with the chemical odor. Based on the characteristics of identified odorants, powdered activated carbon (PAC) was applied to control the odors in the QT River. The results indicated that the medicinal, chemical, septic, and musty odors could be removed entirely after adding 15 mg/L PAC, which effectively controlled emergency odor problems. Overall, the study would offer a scientific basis and operational reference for emergency odor management and control in DWTP with similar complicated odor incidents.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article (and its supplementary information files).

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by Funds for the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21707117, 51878587), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Grant (2018 M631602), Jiangsu Natural Science Foundation of China (No. BK20160438).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environmental Science & Engineering, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, 224051, China

    Qingyuan Guo, Zhaoxia Li, Tianming Chen, Bairen Yang & Cheng Ding

  2. Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Qingyuan Guo

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  1. Qingyuan Guo
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  2. Zhaoxia Li
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Contributions

Qingyuan Guo: Conceptualization, Software, Writing - Original Draft. Zhaoxia Li: Validation, Visualization, Formal analysis. Tianming Chen: Data curation, Methodology. Bairen Yang: Investigation, Project administration. Cheng Ding: Conceptualization, Supervision. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Qingyuan Guo or Cheng Ding.

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Guo, Q., Li, Z., Chen, T. et al. Implications for emergency response to the severe odor incident occurred in source water: Potential odorants and control strategy. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 67022–67031 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15218-1

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