Enhancement of Drinking Water Treatment by Combined Filtration-ICPS: Integrated, Based on EEMS, DOC, UV260 and Removal of Pathogenic Bacteria

Abstract

The impact of natural organic matter (NOM) and pathogenic bacteria in water are of great concern in water treatment due to their effect on human health. In this study, the ability to combine filtration with an inductively coupled plasma system (ICPS) to remove natural organic matter and pathogenic bacteria from water was investigated. UV260 adsorption, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and excitation-emission matrices (EEMs) were used to evaluate the removal of NOM by the filtration-ICPS combination. The system was operated at two different flow rates, 100 and 150 ml/minute.  Decreasing trend revealed for UV260 and DOC with the higher flow rate. Tryptophan-like substances generally found in water were taken as a measure of microbial activity. This preliminary research shows that the average removal efficiencies for fecal coliforms, total coliforms and salmonella were highest at a flow rate of 100 ml/minute. It can be concluded that the combined filtration-ICPS method is capable of removing NOM and pathogenic bacteria from water.

Keywords

• Filtration
• ICPS
• Natural organic matter
• Pathogenic bacteria
• Water treatment