Development of a reverse osmosis/electrodialysis process to concentrate natural organic matter

Disinfection in water treatment has been used to protect public health for over 100 years. Disinfectants are added to inactivate pathogens in the drinking water treatment plant and throughout the distribution system. As an unintended consequence, disinfectants react with natural organic matter (NOM) and other background constituents to form disinfection by-products (DBPs). Each disinfectant produces a different range of DBPs. While toxicity effects of many individual DBPs have been studied, the effect of whole-mixtures of DBPs needs further investigation. The overall goal of this project is to develop and optimize a NOM concentration method using a sequential reverse osmosis(RO)/electrodialysis(ED) treatment system that can be used for toxicity studies. This work focuses on data comparison from two methods of NOM concentration and two sources of sample water, Newmark tap water and a filter effluent from a conventionally-treated surface water treatment plant in Central Illinois, IL. Throughout the processing, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), conductivity, SUVA254nm, pH and select anions (chloride and sulfate) were monitored. Both conductivity and SUVA254nm increased proportionally throughout processing both the Newmark and Central Illinois water samples. The RO portion of the study was completed successfully but additional work is recommended to implement the ED portion successfully