Effects of Pre-Oxidation on Haloacetonitrile and Trichloronitromethane Formation during Subsequent Chlorination of Nitrogenous Organic Compounds

Abstract

The reaction between organic matter and disinfectants leads to the formation of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in drinking water. With the improvement of detection technology and in-depth research, more than 1000 kinds of DBPs have been detected in drinking water. Nitrogenous DBPs (N-DBPs) are more genotoxic and cytotoxic than the regulated DBPs. The main methods are enhanced coagulation, pretreatment, and depth technologies which based are on conventional technology. Amino acids (AAs) are widely found in surface waters and play an important role by providing precursors from which toxic nitrogenous disinfection by-products (N-DBPs) are generated in chlorinated drinking water. The formation of N-DBPs, including dichloroacetonitrile, trichloroacetonitrile, and trichloronitromethane (TCNM), was investigated by analyzing chlorinated water using ozone (OZ), permanganate (PM), and ferrate (Fe(VI)) pre-oxidation processes. This paper has considered the control of pre-oxidation over N-DBPs formation of AAs, OZ, PM, and Fe(VI) pre-oxidation reduced the haloacetonitrile formation in the downstream chlorination. PM pre-oxidation decreased the TCNM formation during the subsequent chlorination, while Fe(VI) pre-oxidation had no significant influence on the TCNM formation, and OZ pre-oxidation increased the formation. OZ pre-oxidation formed the lowest degree of bromine substitution during subsequent chlorination of aspartic acid in the presence of bromide. Among the three oxidants, PM pre-oxidation was expected to be the best choice for reducing the estimated genotoxicity and cytotoxicity of the sum of the measured haloacetonitriles (HANs) and TCNM without bromide. Fe(VI) pre-oxidation had the best performance in the presence of bromide.