Chlorination byproducts formation potentials of typical nitrogenous organic compounds

Wastewater reuse is an effective solution to mitigate water shortage problems in urban areas, and disinfection is necessary to ensure the quality of the reclaimed water. Although chlorine has been widely used to kill pathogenic organisms, it produces disinfection byproducts that contain toxicity, mutagenicity, carcinogenicity and teratogenicity. Nitrogenous organic compounds are important disinfection byproduct precursors. The formation potentials of chloroform, haloacetic acids, haloacetonitriles, chloropicrin,1,1-Dichloropropanone, and 1,1,1-Trichloropropanone during the chlorination of 20 elementary amino acids were studied. The results show that the formation potentials of the disinfection byproducts of the amino acids are related with their-R structures. Tryptophan and tyrosine with active phenyl in their-R structures have high formation potentials of chloroform, haloacetic acids and haloacetonitriles