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Drinking Water Treatment Optimization: Challenges and Innovations

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A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Wastewater Treatment and Reuse".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2020) | Viewed by 15077

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Stephan J. Köhler

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Guest Editor

Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
Interests: Water quality; NOM trends; NOM characterization; optical sensors; coagulation optimization; membrane separation; organic micropollutants; active carbon; digitalization of drinking water treatment plants

Dr. Bjørnar Eikebrokk

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Guest Editor

SINTEF, Trondheim, Norway
Interests: Drinking water; Water quality; Water Treatment Processes; NOM in Water Treatment and Distribution; NOM Diagnostics and Treatability; Treatment Performance Optimization; Safety and Sustainability; Enhanced Coagulation; Filtration; UV disinfection

Dr. Martin Wagner

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Guest Editor

DVGW Technologiezentrum Wasser, Branch Office Dresden, Germany
Interests: Drinking Water; Water quality monitoring; NOM characterization; Disinfection; Optical Spectroscopy; Data Science

Prof. Dr. Peter Jarvis

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Guest Editor

Cranfield Water Science Institute, Cranfield University, Bedfordshire, UK
Interests: water treatment; natural organic matter; advanced oxidation processes; disinfection by-product formation; ion exchange; particle characterisation; coagulation-clarification-filtration; disinfection

Dr. Alexander Keucken

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor

(1) Vatten & Miljö i Väst AB, P.O. Box 110, SE-311 22, Falkenberg, Sweden
(2) Water Resources Engineering, Department of Building and Environmental Technology, Lund University, P.O. Box 118, SE-221 00, Lund, Sweden
Interests: Membranes for drinking and waste water; water quality; NOM trends; NOM characterization; optical sensors; coagulation optimization; biofilm in drinking water distributions systems; smart operation of water treatment plants

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Rising water needs for a growing population in many cities in combination with challenges connected to climate change require overseeing and optimizing the production of drinking water in the near future. The expected larger and faster variation in the quality of raw water with respect to turbidity, organic matter, and potentially related factors, such as pollutants and microbes, may be counteracted by a careful selection of smart optimization techniques related to existing or new processes for drinking water production. This choice must also be based on the increasing levels of safety and sustainability demanded in the water sector. In this Special Issue, we wish to document how the drinking water sector is responding in various ways to the above-mentioned challenges. We welcome manuscripts that document limits in operation, techniques, and tools for the identification of optimization potentials and optimization efforts, highlight the use of advanced analytical techniques, sensors, and digitalization, and present benchmarking techniques that allow the valorization of different approaches from a holistic viewpoint. We encourage contributions dealing with, but not limited to, the following topics:

Advanced organic matter characterization and improved NOM removal techniques.
Techniques for quantitative benchmarking treatment efficiencies.
Techniques for the identification of optimization needs and potentials
Case studies for full-scale optimization efforts
Automatization for optimal treatment as well as strategies and techniques of handling of massive data sets.
Use of various sensors and external data for optimizing drinking water treatment processes
Economical and sustainability limits for improved drinking water treatment.

Prof. Dr. Stephan J. Köhler
Dr. Bjørnar Eikebrokk
Dr. Martin Wagner
Prof. Dr. Peter Jarvis
Dr. Alexander Keucken
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Safe water
NOM removal
optimization
sustainability
climate change

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 2197 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sorption Characteristics and Removal Efficiency of Organic Micropollutants in Drinking Water Using Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) in Pilot-Scale and Full-Scale Tests

by Oksana Golovko, Luana de Brito Anton, Claudia Cascone, Lutz Ahrens, Elin Lavonen and Stephan J. Köhler

Water 2020, 12(7), 2053; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w12072053 - 19 Jul 2020

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 6182

Abstract

Granulated active carbon (GAC) is commonly used as a chemical barrier for the removal of organic micropollutants (OMPs) in drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs). However, little is known about the impact of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and its long-term performance with regard to OMP removal efficiency. This study examined the performance of two GAC types (Norit 830W and Filtrasorb 400) in the removal of OMPs and DOC from natural lake water, in pilot-scale and full-scale tests run for almost one year. Potential early warning indicators of the exhaustion of GAC sorption capacity were also evaluated. The seven OMPs investigated (carbamazepine, lamotrigine, cetirizine, fexofenadine, oxazepam, fluconazole and N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET)) all showed decreasing removal efficiencies after ~20,000 bed volumes (BV) in the pilot-scale Norit 830W and Filtrasorb 400 columns. However, columns with an 18-min empty bed contact time (EBCT) showed better performances than columns with 6-min EBCT. DEET was the OMP adsorbed most weakly. We found that DOC concentrations, methylene blue sorption kinetics, UV and fluorescence did not sufficiently explain the OMP breakthrough in the GAC columns. We concluded that carbamazepine, lamotrigine and fexofenadine can be used as indicators of decreasing GAC adsorption performance, due to their later breakthrough. Based on the results, UV and fluorescence removal could be used for the early detection of declining DOC removal, and online solid-phase extraction (SPE)–liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (SPE-LC-MS/MS) could be used for the early detection of OMPs in drinking water. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drinking Water Treatment Optimization: Challenges and Innovations)

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17 pages, 3348 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Impact of Lake Water Quality on the Performance of Mature Artificial Recharge Ponds

by Jing Li, Kristofer Hägg and Kenneth M. Persson

Water 2019, 11(10), 1991; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w11101991 - 24 Sep 2019

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3342 | Correction

Abstract

Artificial groundwater recharge is commonly used for drinking water supply. The resulting water quality is highly dependent on the raw water quality. In many cases, pretreatment is required. Pretreatment improves the drinking water quality, although how and to what extent it affects the subsequent pond water quality and infiltration process, is still unknown. We evaluated two treatment systems by applying different pretreatment methods for raw water from a eutrophic and temperate lake. An artificial recharge pond was divided into two parts, where one received raw water, only filtered through a microscreen with 500 µm pores (control treatment), while the other part received pretreated lake water using chemical flocculation with polyaluminum chloride (PACl) combined with sand filtration, i.e., continuous contact filtration (contact filter treatment). Water quality factors such as cyanobacterial biomass, microcystin, as well as organic matter and nutrients were measured in both treatment processes. Microcystin condition was screened by an immunoassay and a few selected samples were examined by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS/MS) which is a chemistry technique that combines the physical separation capabilities of liquid chromatography with the mass analysis capabilities of mass spectrometry. Results showed that cyanobacterial biomass and microcystin after the contact filter treatment were significantly different from the control treatment and also significantly different in the pond water. In addition, with contact filter treatment, total phosphorus (TP) and organic matter removal were significantly improved in the end water, TP was reduced by 96% (<20 µg/L) and the total organic carbon (TOC) was reduced by 66% instead of 55% (TOC content around 2.1 mg/L instead of 3.0 mg/L). This full-scale onsite experiment demonstrated effective pretreatment would benefit a more stable water quality system, with less variance and lower microcystin risk. From a broader drinking water management perspective, the presented method is promising for reducing cyanotoxin risk, as well as TP and TOC, which are all predicted to increase with global warming and extreme weather. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drinking Water Treatment Optimization: Challenges and Innovations)

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11 pages, 1307 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Mini-Hydrocyclone Separation of Cyanobacterial and Green Algae: Impact on Cell Viability and Chlorine Consumption

by Saber Moradinejad, Dries Vandamme, Caitlin M. Glover, Tahere Zadfathollah Seighalani and Arash Zamyadi

Water 2019, 11(7), 1473; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w11071473 - 16 Jul 2019

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3858

Abstract

The co-occurrence of non-toxic phytoplankton alongside cyanobacteria adds to the challenge of treating source waters with harmful algal blooms. The non-toxic species consume the oxidant and, thereby, reduce the efficacy of oxidation of both the extracellular and intracellular cyanotoxins. In this work, a 3D printed mini-hydrocyclone was used to separate a mixture of non-toxic green algae, Scenedesmus obliquus, from a toxic species of cyanobacteria, Microcystis aeruginosa. When water is pumped through the mini-hydrocyclone, cells exit through an overflow or underflow port depending on their size, shape, and density relative to the other cells and particles in the water matrix. The overflow port contains the cells that are smaller and less dense since these particles move toward the center of the hydrocyclone. In this work, the majority (>93%) of Microcystis cells were found in the overflow while the underflow contained primarily the Scenedesmus (>80%). This level of separation efficiency was maintained over the 30-min experiment and the majority of both cells (>86%) remained viable following the separation, which indicates that the pumping combined with forces exerted within the mini-hydrocyclone were not sufficient to cause cell death. The impact of free chlorine on the cells both pre-separation and post-separation was evaluated at two doses (1 and 2 mg/L). After separation, the overflow, which contained primarily Microcystis, had at least a 24% reduction in the free chlorine decay rate as compared to the feed water, which contained both species. This reduction in chlorine consumption shows that the cells separated via mini-hydrocyclone would likely require lower doses of oxidant to produce a similar level of degradation of the cyanotoxins present in either the extracellular or intracellular form. However, future work should be undertaken to evaluate this effect in natural bloom samples. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drinking Water Treatment Optimization: Challenges and Innovations)

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