Effect of preozonation on disinfection by-products formation potential of algae cells and extracellular organic matter

Water containing Oscillatoria agardii was cultured under controlled conditions and harvested in the late log growth phase. The objective was to determine: the contribution of algae cells and algae extracellular organic matter (EOM) to the disinfection by-products formation potential (DBPFP), and the effects of preozonation including ozone dosage and preozonation time on DBPFP of algae cells and EOM and mechanism of these effects. The results show that the main trihalomethanes from both Oscillatoria cells and EOM are chloroform and bromodichloromethane, and that the main haloacetic acids are dichloroacetic acid and trichloroacetic acid. HAAFP from algae cells and EOM themselves or after preozonation followed by coagulation is more than THMFP, which shows that more attention should be paid to the control of HAA in the treatment of algae containing water. DBPFP of EOM is reduced by preozonation, and DBPFP clearly decreases with time. Compared with traditional coagulation, the dosage of 0.975 mg/L preozonation with reaction time of 10 minutes followed by coagulation can decrease DBPFP of EOM by 31% and decrease HAAFP by 52.6%, but increase THMFP by 12.5% under this experiment's condition. This result shows the major reason preozonation can control the DBPFP of EOM is that it can control HAAFP effectively. At the same time, the DBPFP of algae cells is significantly increased by preozonation, and this increase is almost a linear function of preozonation time. It can be concluded that in the real water treatment case most of algae cells should be removed intact before preozonation to control the DBPFP.