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Influence of filtration velocity on DON variation in BAF for micropolluted surface water treatment

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Abstract

Biological aerated filters (BAFs) are widely used for the treatment of micropolluted surface water. However, the biological process produces dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), which, as precursors of nitrogenous disinfection by-products, pose potential threats to drinking water safety. Therefore, to control DON in BAF effluent, it is necessary to study the influence of BAF operation parameters on DON production. In this study, the influence of filtration velocity in a BAF on DON production was investigated. Under different filtration velocity (0.5, 2, and 4 m/h) conditions, profiles of DON concentrations along the media layer were measured. The profile at a filtration velocity of 0.5 m/h showed a decreasing trend, and the ones under filtration velocities of 2 and 4 m/h fluctuated in a small range (from 0.1 to 0.4 mg/L). Moreover, the relatively high filtration velocities of 2 and 4 m/h resulted in a lower level of DON concentration. Additionally, 3D excitation-emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy was used to characterize DON. It is found that the patterns of DON at a relatively high filtration velocity condition (4 m/h) were obviously different from the ones under low filtration velocity conditions (0.5 and 2 m/h).

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51509233), the National Science-Technology Support Plan (2015BAD13B03-4), and the Ability Improvement Project of the Engineering and Technology Research Center for the Three Gorges Reservoir Water Quality Protection (cstc2014pt-gc20002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region’s Eco-Environments of MOE, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400045, China

    Teng-Fei Ma, You-Peng Chen, Jia Kang & Fang Fang

  2. Key Laboratory of Reservoir Aquatic Environment of CAS, Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing, 400714, China

    You-Peng Chen, Xu Gao & Jin-Song Guo

  3. Chongqing Environmental Supervision Corps, Chongqing, 401147, China

    Xiao-Tian Zhang

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  1. Teng-Fei Ma
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  2. You-Peng Chen
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  3. Jia Kang
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  4. Xu Gao
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  5. Jin-Song Guo
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  6. Fang Fang
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  7. Xiao-Tian Zhang
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Correspondence to You-Peng Chen or Fang Fang.

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Responsible editor: Bingcai Pan

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Ma, TF., Chen, YP., Kang, J. et al. Influence of filtration velocity on DON variation in BAF for micropolluted surface water treatment. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 23415–23421 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7578-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7578-0

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