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THE USE OF PYROLYSIS/GC/MS TO CHARACTERIZE THE ORGANIC QUALITY OF SURFACE WATERS; SPECIAL APPLICATION TO DRINKING WATER TREATMENT AND THE FORMATION OF DISINFECTION BYPRODUCTS
Citation:
Gray, K. A., A. H. Simpson, K. S. McAuliffe, AND R. M. Bornick. THE USE OF PYROLYSIS/GC/MS TO CHARACTERIZE THE ORGANIC QUALITY OF SURFACE WATERS; SPECIAL APPLICATION TO DRINKING WATER TREATMENT AND THE FORMATION OF DISINFECTION BYPRODUCTS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/R-99/031 (NTIS 99-139552), 1999.
Impact/Purpose:
information
Description:
Natural Organ Material (NOM) in aquatic systems controls the effectiveness of engineered treatment processes and the fate of metals and pollutants in natural systems. At present less than 20% of NOM components can be identified. Pyrolysis-Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (PY-GC-MS) was used to characterize the organic matrix of eleven surface waters and one groundwater from throughout North America providing a characteristic chemical fingerprint of the NOM in each sample.
The fingerprints of samples from three sources treated with conventional and enhanced coagulation have been analyzed statistically in an attempt to establish quantitative relationships between DBP formation and the characteristics of NOM. The accepted wisdom is that aromatic components react with chlorine to produce DBP but in these samples high correlations between trihalomethane formation potential (THMFP) and aliphatic pyrolysis fragments were found, with generally negative correlations to aromatic fragments.
Samples from five sources were collected monthly over the course of a year to identify changes in the organic matrix of the waters due to seasonal effects and in one case due to passage through a wetland. Using principal component analysis (PCA) with PY-GC-MS data, seasonal changes were identified in the organic matrix of each of the waters. Behavioral differences and similarities in the samples due to source, seasonal changes, and passage through a wetland were found.
