RBF - OMP

River bank filtration and organic micropollutant removal

Organic micropollutants (OMPs) are present in Dutch surface waters. Surface water is an important source for drinking water production. Drinking water has to be free of these substances. Because of the broad range of OMPs with varying characteristics, a single process unit is not sufficient to remove all OMPs from the raw water. Therefore, innovative combinations of treatment units are required. The combination river bank filtration – membrane filtration – activated carbon filtrations looks very promising as an absolute barrier for OMPs. The removal capacity is very high, the treatment train is compact and the costs are relatively low. In this research the focus is on the combination of these processes. In addition, a model will be developed that predicts the removal of OMPs during river bank filtration. This so-called Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship (QSAR) combines the physico-chemical properties of the compounds with the characteristics of the river bank filtration process. The advantage of such a model is that extensive, costly research to determine the removal efficiency based on pilot plant experiments may be omitted. Based on the specific characteristics of the compounds the removal can be predicted beforehand. These predictive models also will give information about the required pretreatment.

Project partners
Delft University of Technology, Vitens, Oasen

Funded by
TKI Watertechnologie, Vitens, Oasen

TU-Poject coordinator
Jan Peter van der Hoek

Period
2014