RESUMO
More restricting legislation on dissolved organic carbon (DOC), especially when applied to waters with high DOC contents and low turbidity, urges the drinking water industry to improve the removal of dissolved organic matter (DOM). Jar tests were carried out on sand-filtered water (SFW) and raw water (RW), with respectively 50 different particulate compounds and different cationic polymers. Analytical measurements of DOC and UV absorbance at 254 nm, as well as a characterisation by size exclusion chromatography (SEC), were performed in order to determine the efficiency of the process. Experiments on SFW showed that activated carbon was the only compound able to remove efficiently the residual DOC remaining after conventional treatments (up to 40% of reduction). Other trials on RW using mixes of ferric chloride (FeCl3) and cationic polymers (polyamines and polyDADMAC) pointed out that the molecular mass and the reticulation ratios have a significant influence on the efficiency of the treatment. Finally, the addition of activated carbons to the previous reagents significantly improved the observed removal efficiencies by similar amounts.