APPLICABILITY OF SULFATE RADICAL BASED ADVANCED OXIDATION PROCESSES FOR DRINKING WATER TREATMENT

Natural Organic Matter (NOM) is a complex mixture of organic compounds that are naturally present in water sources. NOM itself is not toxic, but its presence can have negative impacts on the quality of drinking water. It is important to remove NOM from drinking water sources through various treatment processes, such as coagulation, sedimentation and filtration, in order to ensure that the water is safe and aesthetically pleasing for consumption. “Advanced Oxidation Processes” is one of the promising treatment technology to remove NOM in drinking water sources. The aim of this study is to examine the effects of sulfate radical (SO4•−) based photochemical oxidation process (persulfate/UV-C) on the efficiency of organic carbon removal from drinking water sources. In the present study the effect of the initial oxidant concentration on the total organic carbon (TOC) removal efficiency, residual oxidant concentration, alteration of pH and UV254 were examined. Moreover, particle size distribution (PSD) analysis was applied to determine treatment efficiency of each particle size during oxidation process. All experiments were conducted in raw water that originated from a drinking water treatment plant located in İstanbul. According to the experimental studies, it was observed that organic carbon was effectively removed (55%) during the reaction time of 60 minutes by using PS/UV-C at an initial oxidant concentration of 1.0 mM. According to PSD analysis, all particles are smaller than 450 nm and approximately 60% of them were removed by using PS/UV-C process. In experimental studies, decreasing of pH (from 8.3 to 6.5) and UV254 (from 0.097 to 0.013) shows that degradation of TOC. In conclusion, sulphate radical-based photochemical advanced oxidation processes can effectively provide degradation of organic carbon in natural waters.