Reduction of trihalomethane precursors of dissolved organic matter in the secondary effluent by advanced treatment processes.

Wastewater effluent collected from the Wenchang Wastewater Treatment Plant (Harbin, China) was used as source water for advanced treatment and reclamation. Since dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the secondary effluent contains a high concentration of trihalomethanes (THMs) precursors, several processes of advanced treatments including granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorption, sand column biodegradation, horizontal subsurface flow wetland (HSFW) treatment, laboratory-scale soil aquifer treatment (SAT) and GAC+SAT were used in this study to compare and differentiate the removal mechanisms of DOM. DOM in the secondary effluent and the treated effluents was fractionated into five classes using XAD resins: hydrophobic acid (HPO-A), hydrophobic neutral (HPO-N), transphilic acid (TPI-A), transphilic neutral (TPI-N), and hydrophilic fraction (HPI). Results showed that HPO-A and HPI were two main fractions of the DOM in the secondary effluent, accounting for 30.0% and 45.5% of the bulk DOM, respectively. HPO-A exhibited higher trihalomethane formation potential (THMFP) and specific THMFP (STHMFP) than HPI during the chlorination process. The order of the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) removal with respect to different advanced treatments was observed to be GAC+SAT>SAT>GAC>sand column>HSFW. As for the DOM removal mechanisms, the advanced treatment processes of GAC adsorption, SAT and GAC+SAT tended to adsorb more HPO-A, HPO-N and TPI-A and could reduce the aromaticity of those DOM fractions efficiently. Correspondingly, the advanced treatment processes of sand column, SAT, HSFW and GAC+SAT removed more HPI and TPI-N through biodegradation and each of the DOM fractions had an increased aromaticity. The removal order of the THMs precursor by the advanced treatment processes was GAC+SAT>GAC>SAT>sand column>HSFW. The adsorption reduced the STHMFP of the DOM fractions effectively, whereas the biodegradation mechanism of the treatments (sand column, SAT, GAC+SAT and HSFW) showed a converse trend. Moreover, the THMFP and STHMFP of the DOM in the HSFW effluent were obviously affected by the DOM derived from the leaves and roots.