title: Pilot investigation of two-stage biofiltration for removal of natural organic matter in drinking water treatment.
abstract: A pilot study employing two parallel trains of two-stage biofiltration, i.e., a sand/anthracite (SA) biofilter followed by a biologically-active granular activated carbon (GAC) contactor, was conducted to test the efficiency, feasibility and stability of biofiltration for removing natural organic matter (NOM) after coagulation in a drinking water treatment plant. Results showed the biofiltration process could effectively remove turbidity (<0.1 NTU in all effluents) and NOM (>24% of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), >57% of UV254, and >44% of SUVA254), where the SA biofilters showed a strong capacity for turbidity removal, while the GAC contactors played the dominant role in NOM removal. The vertical profile of water quality in the GAC contactors indicated the middle-upper portion was the critical zone for the removal of NOM, where relatively higher adsorption and enhanced biological removal were afforded. Fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (EEM) analysis of NOM showed that the GAC contactors effectively decreased the content of humic-like component, while protein-like component was refractory for the biofiltration process. Nutrients (NH4-N and PO4-P) supplementation applied upstream of one of the two-stage biofiltration trains (called engineered biofiltration) stimulated the growth of microorganisms, and showed a modest effect on promoting the biological removal of small non-aromatic compositions in NOM. Redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated influent UV254was the most explanatory water quality parameter for GAC contactors' treatment performance, and a high load of UV254would result in significantly reduced removals of UV254and SUVA254.
authors.affiliation: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, United States; Department of Environmental Science & Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, United States.
authors.forename: Wan-Ning
authors.initials: WN
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: ARCADIS U.S., Inc, 2410 Paces Ferry Rd., Suite 400, Atlanta, GA 30339, United States.
authors.forename: Clark
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Coleman
authors.affiliation: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, United States.
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.affiliation: ARCADIS U.S., Inc, 2410 Paces Ferry Rd., Suite 400, Atlanta, GA 30339, United States.
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Carter
authors.affiliation: ARCADIS U.S., Inc, 2410 Paces Ferry Rd., Suite 400, Atlanta, GA 30339, United States.
authors.forename: Kirk
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nowack
authors.affiliation: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, United States. Electronic address: ching-hua.huang@ce.gatech.edu.
authors.forename: Ching-Hua
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry; D002606:Charcoal; D002713:Chlorine / Q000737:chemistry; D060766:Drinking Water; D005374:Filtration; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry; D010865:Pilot Projects; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D060766:Drinking Water; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D002606:Charcoal; D002713:Chlorine; D002244:Carbon
keywords: Engineered biofiltration; Fluorescence excitation-emission matrix; Granular activated carbon; Natural organic matter; Prechlorination; Redundancy analysis