Advantages of a ClO2/NaClO combination process for controlling the disinfection by-products (DBPs) for high algae-laden water.

Chlorine dioxide (ClO2) has been widely used in the process of preoxidation and disinfection as an excellent water treatment reagent. However, the inorganic by-products produced by ClO2, such as chlorite (ClO2-) and chlorate (ClO3-) are harmful to human health, and this has become a potential problem when using ClO2 in drinking water treatment. In this study, ClO2 alone and a ClO2/NaClO combination process were carried out to evaluate the algae removal efficiency of the treatment and the formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs: chlorite, chlorate, trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids) for high algae-laden water with 124.16 µg L-1 chlorophyll a (Chl.a) content. The results show that disinfection with 1.5 mg L-1 ClO2 alone results in a ClO2- concentration exceeding 0.7 mg L-1. ClO2 preoxidation/ClO2 disinfection is applicable for the control of effluent quality, but the ClO2- concentration still has an excessive risk when using 0.8 mg L-1 and 0.6 mg L-1 ClO2 for the two process, respectively. In the ClO2/NaClO combination process, the ClO2- concentration is below 0.6 mg L-1, and trihalomethane (THM) and haloacetic acid (HAA) concentrations are lower than 60% of the maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) set by the World Health Organization (WHO). Further, the formation of ClO2- is more effectively controlled by NaClO preoxidation/ClO2 disinfection than ClO2 preoxidation/NaClO disinfection.