Modeling and Minimization of Trihalomethanes generation in an Argentinian Drinking Water Plant.

MARTÍN, C.A; ORTOLANI, V.; TROMBERT, A.R.; CEPERO, E.

Bilbao, Vizcaya, Spain

Congreso; Chemical Reaction Engineering XI: Green Chemical Reactor Engineering.; 2007

Engineering Conferences International

Nowadays, one of the most important challenges in science and technology sectors is to develop tools, that make possible an environmentally sustainable socioeconomic development. Visions have evolved from "end-of-pipe" solutions towards more integral strategies of environmental management, based on prevention, minimization and mitigation of negative environmental impacts. In a worrying global environmental situation, the availability of safe drinking water represents of the most significant problems to be solved. This problem is influenced not only by the abundance and quality of water sources but also by the non-desired secondary effects of the potabilization processes, specifically the generation of trihalomethanes (THMs) as disinfection by-products (DBPs) when chlorine and its derivatives are employed as disinfectants. The solution of this problem clearly shows the necessity of employing integral tools which combine the development of alternative disinfection processes that do not produce DBPs but have a reduced residual capacity (e.g., UV); with the re-engineering of the standard potabilization processes in order to minimize the formation of DBPs. In this work the results of a study carried out in a drinking water plant of the Argentine Republic, are presented and analyzed. This plant processes water from a surface water source with standard physicochemical and disinfection processes. Experimental monitorings were carried out during a whole year and included physic and physicochemical parameters of the water, operative conditions and THMs´s generation. The data are analyzed using statistics techniques that permit to establish quali-quantitative conclusions of the impact of each of the involved variable in THMs´s generation (e.g., natural organic matter, chlorine dose). The obtained results do not only give information about the physical chemistry of the THMs´s generation, but also provide to the development of criteria of intervention and combination of alternative disinfection technologies, optimizing the germicidal and residual capacity in terms of minimization of THMs formation.