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Control of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in drinking water could be achieved by removing its precursors as one practical way. Herein, superfine powdered activated carbons with a diameter of about 1 µm (SPACs) were successfully prepared by grinding powdered activated carbon (PAC, D 50 =24.3 µm) and applied to remove model NDMA precursors, i.e. ranitidine (RAN) and nizatidine (NIZ). Results from grain diameter experiments demonstrated that the absorption velocity increased dramatically with decreasing particle size, and the maximum increase in k 2 was 26.8-folds for RAN and 33.4-folds for NIZ. Moreover, kinetic experiments explained that rapid absorption could be attributed to the acceleration of intraparticle diffusion due to the shortening of the diffusion path. Furthermore, performance comparison experiments suggested that the removal of RAN and NIZ (C 0 =0.5 mg/L) could reach 61.3% and 60%, respectively, within 5 min, when the dosage of SAPC-1.1 (D 50 =1.1 µm) was merely 5 mg/L, while PAC-24.3 could only eliminate 17.5% and 18.6%. The adsorption isotherm was well defined by Langmuir isotherm model, indicating that the adsorption of RAN/NIZ was a monolayer coverage process. The adsorption of RAN or NIZ by SAPC-1.1 and PAC-24.3 was strongly pH dependent, and high adsorption capacity could be observed under the condition of pH > pk a +1. The coexistence of humic acid (HA) had no significant effect on the adsorption performance because RAN/NIZ may be coupled with HA and removed simultaneously. The coexistence of anions had little effect on the adsorption also. This study is expected to provide an alternative strategy for drinking water safety triggered by NDMA., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this article., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) as one emerging disinfection by-product has been investigated globally since 1990s. However, its main precursors are still unclear. We found that NDMA formation potential (NDMAFP) of various water samples increased firstly and then decreased gradually during incubation with microorganism. We hypothesized that NDMA precursors could be produced through metabolism of nitrogenous components and then gradually be biodegraded. To verify this hypothesis, six amino acids (AAs), peptone and ammonium were separately incubated with microorganism and NDMAFP was measured regularly. The average molar yield of the substrates to NDMAFP were 60-200 × 10 -6 for the AAs, 350 × 10 -6 for peptone under aerobic condition. The extracellular fraction with molecular weight (MW) less than 1 k Dalton contributed the majority to NDMAFP in the peptone experiment, followed by that with MW between 10 k and 0.22 μm and the intracellular materials. Dimethylamine and methylamine were detected during the experiments but their contribution to NDMAFP is quite limited. The results indicate that the nitrosamine precursors may not be the direct metabolite of AAs or peptones but the excretion of living bacteria or the components in dead bacteria body. Our results inferred that AA metabolism may give an NDMAFP of 0.12 nmol/L (maximum) or 0.09 nmol/L (average) in water under aerobic condition. This estimation of NDMAFP from AA metabolism can account for 38% (maximum) or 27% (average) of the median NDMAFP in waters of China (0.32 nmol/L) reported before., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Four sampling campaigns were conducted in two years to understand the fluctuation of N-Nitrosamines (NAs) and their precursors in one drinking water treatment plant (DWTP) in East China in different seasons. This water supply system has been facing several nitrosamine challenges related with source water, including the switch of water source, high concentration of ammonium, formed NAs and NA formation potential (FP) in source water. Besides, the use of ozonation in the DWTP and chloramination in networks will increase the NDMA concentration in tap water. To address these challenges, the bio-pretreatment was applied in this DWTP to decrease the concentration of ammonium and NAs. The following biological activated carbon (BAC) will neutralize the nitrosamine increase brought by ozonation. The use of free chlorine in disinfection process will also decrease the NDMA formation compared with chloramination. The results will benefit other cities in China and other countries with similar impacted water sources., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

N‑nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) was detected in the source water of some Chinese drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs), which decreased in concentration along the treatment train. Volatilization, photolysis, and/or biodegradation were suspected of being capable of attenuating NDMA. In this study, the contribution of these mechanisms to NDMA removal was investigated by a field study in a conventional DWTP with aerated bio-pretreatment, as well as in laboratory-based experiments. The effluent of each unit process (i.e., aerated bio-pretreatment tank, horizontal sedimentation tank, sand filter) of this DWTP was sampled in the winter and summer, and the concentration of NDMA, its formation potential, and other water quality parameters were measured. NDMA removal by volatilization and biodegradation was simulated in batch experiments, and that by photolysis was calculated with parameters reported in the literature. The sampling results indicated that the aerated biofilm reactor of this DWTP removed 48% of the NDMA in August and 22% in December. According to modeling results, it could be well explained by photolysis (NDMA removal of 51% in summer and 25% in winter) and biotreatment (NDMA removal of 0.2-12% in summer and 0.1-6.1% in winter), with little contribution from aeration (NDMA removal of 0.8%). The sampling results indicated that the sedimentation tank removed 19% of NDMA in August and 9.2% in December. According to modeling results, it could be well explained by photolysis (NDMA removal of 16% in August and 9.4% in December), but little by volatilization. Thus, photolysis was shown to be the most important process for NDMA removal in this DWTP. Further investigation is needed to better understand NDMA removal during biotreatment., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

It is the priority to guarantee biosafety for drinking water treatment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of widely applied conventional and ozone-biological activated carbon (O 3 -BAC) advanced treatment technology on biosafety of drinking water. The items, including assimilable organic carbon (AOC), biodegradable dissolved organic carbon (BDOC), heterotrophic plate counts (HPCs) and the microorganism community structures, were used to evaluate the biosafety. Moreover, their relationships with molecular weights (MWs) and fluorescence intensity of dissolved organic matter were investigated. The results indicated that the technology provided a considerable gain in potable water quality by decreasing dissolved organic carbon (DOC, from 5.05 to 1.71 mg/L), AOC (from 298 to 131 μg/L), BDOC (from 1.39 to 0.24 mg/L) and HPCs (from 275 to 10 CFU/mL). Ozone brought an increase in DOC with low MW <1 kDa, which accompanies with an increase in AOC/BDOC concentration, which could be reduced effectively by subsequent BAC process. The formation of AOC/BDOC was closely related to DOC with low MWs and aromatic protein. Bacteria could be released from BAC filter, resulting in an increase in HPC and the presence of pathogenic bacteria in effluent, while the post sand filter could further guarantee the biosafety of finished water.

N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) precursors consist of a positively charged dimethylamine group and a non-polar moiety, which inspired us to develop a targeted cation exchange technology to remove NDMA precursors. In this study, we tested the removal of two representative NDMA precursors, dimethylamine (DMA) and ranitidine (RNTD), by strong acidic cation exchange resin. The results showed that pH greatly affected the exchange efficiency, with high removal (DMA>78% and RNTD>94%) observed at pHa -1 when the molar ratio of exchange capacity to precursor was 4. The exchange order was obtained as follows: Ca 2+ >Mg 2+ >RNTD + >K + >DMA + >NH 4 + >Na + . The partition coefficient of DMA + to Na + was 1.41±0.26, while that of RNTD + to Na + was 12.1±1.9. The pseudo second-order equation fitted the cation exchange kinetics well. Bivalent inorganic cations such as Ca 2+ were found to have a notable effect on NA precursor removal in softening column test. Besides DMA and RNTD, cation exchange process also worked well for removing other 7 model NDMA precursors. Overall, NDMA precursor removal can be an added benefit of making use of cation exchange water softening processes., (Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The extensive use of antibiotics has led to their presence in the aquatic environment, and introduces potential impacts on human and ecological health. The capability of powdered activated carbon (PAC) to remove six frequently used quinolone (QN) antibiotics during water treatment was evaluated to improve drinking water safety. The kinetics of QN adsorption by PAC was best described by a pseudo second-order equation, and the adsorption capacity was well described by the Freundlich isotherm equation. Isotherms measured at different pH showed that hydrophobic interaction, electrostatic interaction, and π-π dispersion force were the main mechanisms for adsorption of QNs by PAC. A pH-dependent isotherm model based on the Freundlich equation was developed to predict the adsorption capacity of QNs by PAC at different pH values. This model had excellent prediction capabilities under different laboratory scenarios. Small relative standard derivations (RSDs), i.e., 0.59%-0.92% for ciprofloxacin and 0.09%-3.89% for enrofloxacin, were observed for equilibrium concentrations above the 0.3mg/L level. The RSDs increased to 11.9% for ciprofloxacin and 32.1% for enrofloxacin at μg/L equilibrium levels, which is still acceptable. This model could be applied to predict the adsorption of other chemicals having different ionized forms., (Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The drinking water sources of many cities in southern China are frequently contaminated by upstream urban drainage during storm events, which brings high concentrations of N-nitrosamine (NA) precursors and poses a threat to the safety of drinking water. We conducted two sampling campaigns during the heavy rain season in 2015 in one representative city in southern China. We detected that the concentration of N-nitrosodimethylamine formation potential (NDMA FP) in urban drainage during two storm events was 80-115 ng/L and the total formation potential concentration of nine nitrosamines (TNA9 FP) was 145-165 ng/L. To address the deteriorated water quality, 30 mg/L of powdered activated carbon (PAC) was fed into the water intake. PAC adsorption alone could remove 52% of NDMA FP and 52% of TNA FP, while the subsequent conventional process only removed 8% of TNA FP. We isolated six chemicals (N,N-benzyldimethylamine, 5-[(dimethylamino)methyl]-2-furanmethanol, N,N-dimethyl-3-aminophenol, N,N-dimethylethylamine, Ziram, and N,N-dimethylaniline) and confirmed them to be NA precursors. Among these NA precursors, Ziram was identified for the first time as a NA precursor that is formed via chloramination; its molar yield for NDMA was 6.73 ± 0.40%., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Some N-nitrosamines (NAs) have been identified as emerging disinfection by-products during water treatment. Thus, it is essential to understand the characteristics of the NA precursors. In this study, the polarity rapid assessment method (PRAM) and the classical resin fractionation method were studied as methods to fractionate the NA precursors during drinking water treatment. The results showed that PRAM has much higher selectivity for NA precursors than the resin approach. The normalized N-nitrosodimethylamine formation potential (NDMA FP) and N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA) FP of four resin fractions was at the same level as the average yield of the bulk organic matter whereas that of the cationic fraction by PRAM showed 50 times the average. Thus, the cationic fraction was shown to be the most important NDMA precursor contributor. The PRAM method also helped understand which portions of the NA precursor were removed by different water treatment processes. Activated carbon (AC) adsorption removed over 90% of the non-polar PRAM fraction (that sorbs onto the C18 solid phase extraction [SPE] cartridge) of NDMA and NDEA precursors. Bio-treatment removed 80-90% of the cationic fraction of PRAM (that is retained on the cation exchange SPE cartridge) and 40-60% of the non-cationic fractions. Ozonation removed 50-60% of the non-polar PRAM fraction of NA precursors and transformed part of them into the polar fraction. Coagulation and sedimentation had very limited removal of various PRAM fractions of NA precursors., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A sampling campaign was conducted monthly to investigate the occurrence of N-nitrosamines at a conventional water treatment plant in one city in North China. The yield of N-nitrosamines in the treated water indicated precursors changed greatly after the source water switching. Average concentrations of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), N-nitrosomorpholine (NMOR), and N-nitrosopyrrolidine (NPYR) in the finished water were 6.9, 3.3, and 3.1ng/L, respectively, from June to October when the Luan River water was used as source water, while those of NDMA, N-nitrosomethylethylamine (NMEA), and NPYR in the finished water were 10.1, 4.9, and 4.7ng/L, respectively, from November to next April when the Yellow River was used. NDMA concentration in the finished water was frequently over the 10ng/L, i.e., the notification level of California, USA, which indicated a considerable threat to public health. Weak correlations were observed between N-nitrosamine yield and typical water quality parameters except for the dissolved organic nitrogen., (Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Biofilm formation in drinking water distribution systems (DWDS) has many adverse consequences. Knowledge of microbial community structure of DWDS biofilm can aid in the design of an effective control strategy. However, biofilm bacterial community in real DWDS and the impact of drinking water purification strategy remain unclear. The present study investigated the composition and diversity of biofilm bacterial community in real DWDSs transporting waters with different purification strategies (conventional treatment and integrated treatment). High-throughput Illumina MiSeq sequencing analysis illustrated a large shift in the diversity and structure of biofilm bacterial community in real DWDS. Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Nitrospirae, and Cyanobacteria were the major components of biofilm bacterial community. Proteobacteria (mainly Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, and Gammaproteobacteria) predominated in each DWDS biofilm, but the compositions of the dominant proteobacterial classes and genera and their proportions varied among biofilm samples. Drinking water purification strategy could shape DWDS biofilm bacterial community. Moreover, Pearson's correlation analysis indicated that Actinobacteria was positively correlated with the levels of total alkalinity and dissolved organic carbon in tap water, while Firmicutes had a significant positive correlation with nitrite nitrogen.

Biofiltration has been widely used to reduce organic matter and control the formation of disinfection by-products in drinking water. Backwashing might affect the biofilters' performance and the attached microbiota on filter medium. In this study, the impacts of backwashing on the removal of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) and N-nitrosamine precursors by a pilot-scale biological activated carbon (BAC) filtration system were investigated. The impacts of backwashing on biomass and microbial community structure of BAC biofilm were also investigated. Phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis showed that backwashing reduced nearly half of the attached biomass on granular activated carbon (GAC) particles, followed by a recovery to the pre-backwashing biomass concentration in 2 days after backwashing. Backwashing was found to transitionally improve the removal of DOC, DON and N-nitrosamine precursors. MiSeq sequencing analysis revealed that backwashing had a strong impact on the bacterial diversity and community structure of BAC biofilm, but they could gradually recover with the operating time after backwashing. Phylum Proteobacteria was the largest bacterial group in BAC biofilm. Microorganisms from genera Bradyrhizobium, Hyphomicrobium, Microcystis and Sphingobium might contribute to the effective removal of nitrogenous organic compounds by drinking water biofilter. This work could add some new insights towards the operation of drinking water biofilters and the biological removal of organic matter.

The source water in one forest region of the Northeast China had very high natural organic matter (NOM) concentration and heavy color during snowmelt period. The efficiency of five combined treatment processes was compared to address the high concentration of NOM and the mechanisms were also analyzed. Conventional treatment can hardly remove dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in the source water. KMnO4 pre-oxidization could improve the DOC removal to 22.0%. Post activated carbon adsorption improved the DOC removal of conventional treatment to 28.8%. The non-sufficient NOM removal could be attributed to the dominance of large molecular weight organic matters in raw water, which cannot be adsorbed by the micropore upon activated carbon. O3+activated carbon treatment are another available technology for eliminating the color and UV254 in water. However, its performance of DOC removal was only 36.4%, which could not satisfy the requirement for organic matter. The limited ozone dosage is not sufficient to mineralize the high concentration of NOM. Magnetic ion-exchange resin combined with conventional treatment could remove 96.2% of color, 96.0% of UV254 and 87.1% of DOC, enabling effluents to meet the drinking water quality standard. The high removal efficiency could be explained by the negative charge on the surface of NOM which benefits the static adsorption of NOM on the anion exchange resin. The results indicated that magnetic ion-exchange resin combined with conventional treatment is the best available technology to remove high concentration of NOM., (Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Knowledge of N-nitrosamine precursors from dissolved organic matter (DOM) is important for water professionals to better control N-nitrosamine formation. The characterization of DOM from the Luan River in Northern China was conducted using Amberlite XAD resins and ultra-filtration methods. N-nitrosamine formation potentials were investigated for various DOM fractions. The removal of the DOM during water treatment were evaluated using dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and ultraviolet absorbance at 254 nm (UV254) bulk parameters as well as size exclusion chromatography and fluorescence spectroscopy. The results indicated that the XAD-4 hydrophilic fraction, with normalized yields of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), N-nitrosopyrrolidine (NPYR), N-nitrosomorpholine (NMOR), and N-nitrosopiperidine (NPIP) of 27.2, 5.2, 5.9, and 6.1 ng/mg-DOC, respectively, tended to form more N-nitrosamines than the hydrophobic and the transphilic fractions. The DOM fraction with a molecular weight (MW) below 1 kDa, with normalized yields of NDMA, NPYR, NMOR, and NPIP of 39.6, 8.1, 14.7, and 3.3 ng/mg-DOC, respectively, tended to form more N-nitrosamines than those with a higher MW. The limited removal of the hydrophilic fraction and the lower MW DOM faction during conventional water treatment processes suggests that the process may not effectively remove the nitrosamine precursors., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A GAC-sand dual media filter (GSF) was devised as an alternative solution for drinking water treatment plant to tackle the raw water polluted by ammonium in place of expensive ozone-GAC processes or bio-pretreatments. The ammonium removal pathways and microbial community in the GSFs were investigated. The concentrations of ammonium, nitrite and nitrate nitrogen were monitored along the filter. Total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) loss occurred during the filtration. For 1 mg ammonium removal, the TIN loss was as high as 0.35 mg, DO consumption was 3.06 mg, and alkalinity consumption was 5.55 mg. It was assumed that both nitrification and denitrification processes occur in the filters to fit the TIN loss and low DO consumption. During the filtration, nitritation, nitrification and nitritation-anaerobic ammonium oxidation processes probably occur, while traditional nitrification and denitrification and simultaneous nitrification and denitrification processes may occur. In the GSFs, Nitrosomonas and Nitrospira are likely to be involved in nitrification processes, while Novosphingobium, Comamonadaceae and Oxalobacteraceae may be involved in denitrification processes.

XAD-8 resin isolation of organic matter in water was used to divide organic matter into the hydrophobic and hydrophilic fractions. A pilot plant was used to investigate the change in both fractions during conventional and advanced treatment processes. The treatment of hydrophobic organics (HPO), rather than hydrophilic organicas (HPI), should carry greater emphasis due to HPO's higher trihalomethane formation potential (THMFP) and haloacetic acid formation potential (HAAFP). The removal of hydrophobic matter and its transmission into hydrophilic matter reduced ultimate DBP yield during the disinfection process. The results showed that sand filtration, ozonation, and biological activated carbon (BAC) filtration had distinct influences on the removal of both organic fractions. Additionally, the combination of processes changed the organic fraction proportions present during treatment. The use of ozonation and BAC maximized organic matter removal efficiency, especially for the hydrophobic fraction. In sum, the combination of pre-ozonation, conventional treatment, and O3-BAC removed 48% of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), 60% of HPO, 30% of HPI, 63% of THMFP, and 85% of HAAFP. The use of conventional treatment and O3-BAC without pre-ozonation had a comparable performance, removing 51% of DOC, 56% of HPO, 45% of HPI, 61% of THMFP, and 72% of HAAFP. The effectiveness of this analysis method indicated that resin isolation and fractionation should be standardized as an applicable test to help assess water treatment process efficiency.

Particles and natural organic matter (NOM) are two major concerns in surface water, which greatly influence the membrane filtration process. The objective of this article is to investigate the effect of particles, NOM and their interaction on the submerged ultrafiltration (UF) membrane flux under conditions of solo UF and coagulation and PAC adsorption as the pretreatment of UF. Particles, NOM and their mixture were spiked in tap water to simulate raw water. Exponential relationship, (J(P)/J(P0) = a x exp{-k[t-(n-1)T]}), was developed to quantify the normalized membrane flux dynamics during the filtration period and fitted the results well. In this equation, coefficient a was determined by the value of J(P)/J(P0) at the beginning of a filtration cycle, reflecting the flux recovery after backwashing, that is, the irreversible fouling. The coefficient k reflected the trend of flux dynamics. Integrated total permeability (SigmaJ(P)) in one filtration period could be used as a quantified indicator for comparison of different hybrid membrane processes or under different scenarios. According to the results, there was an additive effect on membrane flux by NOM and particles during solo UF process. This additive fouling could be alleviated by coagulation pretreatment since particles helped the formation of flocs with coagulant, which further delayed the decrease of membrane flux and benefited flux recovery by backwashing. The addition of PAC also increased membrane flux by adsorbing NOM and improved flux recovery through backwashing.

Organic matter in source water has presented many challenges in the field of water purification, especially for conventional treatment. A two-year-long pilot test comparing water treatment processes was conducted to enhance organic matter removal. The tested process combinations included the conventional process, conventional plus advanced treatment, pre-oxidation plus conventional process and pre-oxidation plus conventional plus advanced treatment. The efficiency of each kind of process was assayed with the comprehensive indices of COD(Mn), TOC, UV(254), AOC, BDOC, THMs, and HAAs and their formation potential. The results showed that the combination of the conventional process and O(3)-BAC provides integrated removal of organic matter and meets the required standards. It is the best performing treatment tested in this investigation for treating polluted source water in China. Moreover, much attention should be paid to organic removal before disinfection to control DBP formation and preserve biostability. This paper also reports the range of efficiency of each unit process to calculate the total efficiency of different process combinations in order to help choose the appropriate water treatment process.

The nitrogen loss and DO paradox in full-scale biofiltration for drinking water treatment and the possible pathway responsible for them were investigated. A highly contaminated source water was treated at Pinghu Surface Water Plant using four biofilters, which resulted in a steady removal of NH(4)(+)-N (2.67mg/L), a great DO consumption (8.86 mg/L) and an increase in the concentration of NO(3)(-)-N (1.77mg/L). The nitrogen and DO balances indicated that about 13 NH(4)(+)-N was lost and the actual DO consumption was about 30% lower than the theoretical DO demand if nitrification was regarded as the only pathway to remove NH(4)(+)-N. The analysis of correlation coefficients analysis between several factors and the nitrogen loss suggested that "Aerobic deammonification", the coupling of shortcut nitrification and the anaerobic ammonia oxidation (Anammox) in an aerobic environment, might be the most probable pathways to explain the occurrence of these phenomena. According to this mechanism, about 57% NH(4)(+)-N was removed through complete nitrification and about 21.5% NH(4)(+)-N was incompletely nitrified into NO(2)(-)-N. The latter then involved in Anammox as the electron acceptor with the remaining NH(4)(+)-N as the electron donor. Since the Anammox reaction is anaerobic, the nitrogen loss and DO paradox can be justified.

Bacterial Growth Potential (BGP) method was used to investigate the limiting effect of phosphorus in the biological process for drinking water treatment in a water plant in Huai River basin. BGP was increased by 54% when 50 micrograms.L-1 KH2PO4-P was added to the raw water, while addition of other inorganic nutrients had no significant difference from the addition of phosphorus. The effect of addition of 20 mg.L-1 C6H12O6 to raw water was not so strong as that of 50 micrograms.L-1 KH2PO4-P. The CODMn removal rate of the biological filter was 7.5 percentiles higher than the control one and carbon was the main limiting nutrient in its effluent when phosphorus was added to the raw water, while phosphorus was the main limiting nutrient in the effluent of the control filter. These results suggest that phosphorus was a limiting nutrient and had a stronger limiting effect than carbon on the biological process in this plant thus the removal efficiency of the organic matters could be increased by adding phosphorus to the influent.