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Natural Organic Matter (NOM)

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Encyclopedia of Membranes

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Natural organic matter (NOM) is an organic material from environmental origin and produced by biodegradation of organic substances (plants, etc.). NOM gives surface waters a brownish color and is a problem in drinking water supply, not because of its toxicity but because some of its components can react with chlorine used as disinfectant. The reaction by-products include trihalomethane, haloacetic acids, chlorophenols, etc. which are potentially carcinogenic. The NOM components are known as trihalomethane precursors (THMPs), and it is recognized that their removal prior to disinfection is important for public health. Membrane technology is frequently used for treatment to remove NOM from surface waters (see NOM Removal and Fouling).

Natural organic matter (NOM) has a broad spectrum of molecular weights and size distributions, functional groups, and substructures. The term NOM covers the particulate colloids (POM), “dissolved” colloids, and macrosolutes or dissolved organic matter (DOM)...

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Further Reading

  • Fane AG, Wei X, Wang R (2006) Membrane filtration processes and fouling. In: Newcombe G, Dixon D (eds) Interface science in drinking water treatment: fundamentals and applications. Academic, New York, Chapter 10

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UNSW, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of New South Wales, 2052, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Tony Fane

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  1. Tony Fane
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Correspondence to Tony Fane .

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  1. Institute on Membrane Technology, National Research Council of Italy, ITM-CNR, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy

    Enrico Drioli

  2. Institute on Membrane Technology, National Research Council of Italy, ITM-CNR, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy

    Lidietta Giorno

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© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Fane, T. (2015). Natural Organic Matter (NOM). In: Drioli, E., Giorno, L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Membranes. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40872-4_286-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40872-4_286-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-40872-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Chemistry and Mat. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics

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