Open access publications in the SLU publication database

Abstract

Conventional drinking water treatment is inefficient in removing a large fraction of known organic micropollutants (OMPs). Therefore more efficient treatment approaches are needed to limit exposure to OMPs via drinking water. Here, the OMP removal performance of a combination of ozonation/no ozonation and two types of granular activated carbon (GAC) was tested in a one-year pilot-scale study, alongside a study of full-scale treatment. The raw water was lake water with low ambient concentrations of OMPs. In total, 29 of 99 targeted OMPs (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), pharmaceuticals and other OMPs) were detected (mean n-ary sumation OMPs = 57 +/- 16 ng L-1). Only a few OMPs were consistently removed in the full-scale process, while ozonation in the pilot experiment effectively removed 72% of detected compounds to levels <30%. The GAC columns showed breakthrough of OMPs and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) for both ozonated and non-ozonated water, with earlier breakthrough for DOC than OMPs. Breakthrough of OMPs was delayed in ozonated columns, possibly because of lower adsorption competition with low-molecular-weight natural organic matter (NOM) fractions measured with liquid chromatography (LC-OCD). The OMP removal performance of the two GAC materials was not affected by greater DOC loading, but Filtrasorb showed 25% higher removal of DOC without losing capacity to remove OMPs. Compounds with low log K-OC tended to break through earlier than those with higher K-OC values. The lowest levels of OMPs were observed in GAC effluents using ozonated feed water demonstrating the efficacy of combining ozone with GAC for managing OMP levels during drinking water production.