By-products formation during drinking water disinfection: a tool to assess disinfection efficiency?
In drinking water treatment, the inactivation of microorganisms increases with increasing disinfectant exposure (product of concentration and contact time, CT). Also, the formation of undesired (toxic) disinfection by-products increases with CT. The present study proposes a new concept that uses this undesired side effect of chemical water disinfection for a fast and reliable test of treatment efficiency. In laboratory systems, bromate formation during ozonation and the formation of trihalomethanes during chlorination were used to calculate the disinfectant exposure, which is a measure for the achieved degree of disinfection.
von Gunten
U
U
EAWAG, Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology, CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland. vongunten@eawag.ch
Driedger
A
A
Gallard
H
H
Salhi
E
E
D000818:Animals; D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology; D003458:Cryptosporidium / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004203:Disinfection; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000469:parasitology*; D016829:Giardia lamblia / Q000302:isolation & purification; D010126:Ozone; D013171:Spores, Bacterial; D013557:Switzerland; D013997:Time Factors; D014881:Water Supply / Q000592:standards*
D010126:Ozone