Removal of Organic Matter from Water Supplies by Ion Exchange

Abstract

This study was initiated to provide quantitative information on the use of anion exchange resins for organic removal. It was shown that the organics that are present in surface waters which currently pass through conventional treatment could be removed by anion exchange with the use of strongly basis anion exchange columns. It was observed that the organics were removed to the lower limits of detection of the total organic carbon analysis with the use of the high porosity strongly basic resins. These resins were also found to be easily regenerated with the use of sodium chloride. The selectivity and kinetics of the chloride versus organic exchange process was briefly investigated. The reason being that this is a new approach to this problem and no data was available in the literature to provide information which could be used for preliminary design of a full scale treatment plant. A preliminary plant design was done, the result showed that the process would be economically feasible and certainly competitive with alternate methods of organic removal, assuming that they would also prove to be as effective at organic removal as ion exchange. So, ion exchange could prove to be an effective, reliable and economical method to provide for the removal of organics for drinking water.