Natural Organic Matter Removal from Raw Surface Water: Benchmarking Performance of Chemical Coagulants through Excitation-Emission Fluorescence Matrix Spectroscopy Analysis

Chemical disinfection of surface waters has been proven effective in minimizing the risk of contamination by water-borne pathogens. However, surface waters contain natural organic matter (NOM) which, upon chemical disinfection, is readily converted into hazardous disinfection-by-products. Hence, NOM removal from these waters is critical. Chemical coagulation is a readily implementable technology to minimize these undesired side-effects by NOM removal. Herein, capabilities of ferric chloride (FeCl3) and polyaluminum chloride (PACl) as pre-treatment for NOM abatement from natural raw surface water have been benchmarked. Excitation-emission fluorescence matrix (EEM) spectroscopy characterization of NOM fractions demonstrated high removal efficiency. A two-level full factorial design was employed to analyze the effects of coagulant dosage and initial pH on the removal of turbidity, humic acid-like substances and fulvic acid-like substances from the raw water. Higher removal of similar to 77% NOM was attained with PACl than with FeCl3 (similar to 72%). Optimization through response surface methodology showed that the initial pH-coagulant dosage interaction was significant in removing NOM and turbidity for both PACl and FeCl3. These results identify the opportunity for coagulation technologies to prevent and minimize disinfection-by-products formation through NOM removal.