Removal of Organic Matter From Surface Water Using Coagulants With Various Basicity

Humic substances are a natural admixture of surface water and determine the level of organic pollution of water and colour intensity. Application of coagulation process in surface water treatment allows for decrease turbidity and colour of water, as well as organic matter content. In Poland most drinking water treatment plants use aluminium sulphate as a coagulant. Research works on pre-hydrolyzed coagulants, e.g. polyaluminium chlorides (general formula Aln(OH)mCl3n-m) are also carried out. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the coagulation process using polyaluminium chlorides with different basicity, in reducing the level of pollution of surface water with organic substances. Apart from the typical indicators used to evaluate the content of organic compounds, the potential for trihalomethanes formation THM-FP was also determined. The influence of the type of coagulant (low, medium, highly alkaline) on the efficiency of organic compound removal, determined as total organic carbon TOC, oxidisability OXI, absorbance UV254, was stated. Under the conditions of the coagulation (pH 7.2–7.4, temperature of 19–21°C), the best results were obtained using highly alkaline polyaluminium chlorides PAX-XL19F, PAX-XL1905 and PAX-XL1910S, decrease in TOC and OXI by 43–46%, slightly worse – 40–41% using low alkaline PAX18. Using the medium alkaline coagulants PAX-XL61 and PAXX-XL69, 30–35% removal of organic matter was obtained. Despite various effects of dissolved organic carbon removal, depending on the used coagulant, THM-FP in purified water did not differ significantly and ranged from 10.0 to 10.9 mgCHCl3 m-3. It was by 37–42% lower than in surface water