The variation of DOM during long distance water transport by the China South to North Water Diversion Scheme and impact on drinking water treatment

Highlights

● Variations of DOM in South-to-North Water Diversion is studied in winter and summer.

● Polysaccharides seriously fouled the UF membrane in summer.

● NF membrane fouling in winter was mainly caused by the DOM degradation products.

● DOM was more easily to form THMs in summer but HAAs in winter.

Abstract

In this study, samples were taken from three locations, upstream to downstream, along the central route project of the China South to North Water Diversion (SNWD) scheme in summer and winter. These were used to reveal the variations of dissolved organic matter (DOM) during the water transfer process, and the effects of these variations on drinking water treatment and disinfection by-products formation potential (DBPs-FP). The results showed that polysaccharides accumulate in summer and reduce in winter with flow distance, which has an important effect on the overall properties of DOM, as well as on the performance of coagulation, ultrafiltration, and the formation of DBPs. Humic substances, and their hydrophilic content, also increased in summer and decreased in winter with flow distance. In contrast, the concentration of small organic substances (MW ≤ 1000 Da) increased in both summer and winter with flow distance, which affected both nanofiltration (NF) membrane fouling and DBPs-FP. The results provide a useful case study of spatial and temporal changes in raw water DOM during long distance water transfer and their impact on the treatment and quality of drinking water from the SNWD.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Long-distance water transfer / The China South to North Water Diversion Scheme / Coagulation / Membrane filtration / Disinfection by-products

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CRediT Authorship Contribution Statement

Hankun Yang and Wenzheng Yu designed the experiments; Hankun Yang, Yujuan Li, Hongyu Liu, Jiawei Hou and Wenyu Wang completed the main experiments; Mengjie Liu completed Fig.1; Nigel J. D. Graham involved in the discussion and suggestions; Hankun Yang wrote the draft; Wenzheng Yu, Xue Wu, and Nigel J. D. Graham made the final revision to the manuscript.

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (China) (No. JQ21032) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52200026 and 52200027).

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-024-1819-0 and is accessible for authorized users.

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