NOM characterisation

Team
Jacqueline Traber

Goal
To characterize NOM related to drinking water treatment processes.

Description
Natural organic matter (NOM) plays a crucial role in all drinking water treatment processes (oxidation/disinfection, membranes, activated carbon filtration). In the last decades a big effort was made to develop suitable tools to characterize NOM to deduct information with regard to its behavior in various processes. Even though some useful tools have been developed, there is no simple and practical method which yields information relevant for all treatment processes. NOM has been characterized by different fractionation techniques followed by analysis of the fractions. Even with these analytical techniques it is difficult to predict the behavior of NOM in various treatment processes. LC-OCD (liquid chromatography with organic carbon detection ) is used to perform a process-oriented evaluation of NOM, which allows a fast assessment of the role of NOM for a particular water to be treated.

Interaction of NOM with oxidants - assessment of the influence of NOM on oxidation and disinfection efficiency (stability of oxidant, oxidation by-product formation, AOC formation potential).

Interaction of NOM with membranes - Assessment of the important foulants for membranes; determination of the fouling potential, interaction with micropollutants, biofilm formation, etc.

Interaction of NOM with granular activated carbon (GAC) - Influence of the type and concentration of NOM on GAC adsorption processes (specific adsorption and size).