Affordable filtration technology of safe drinking water for rural Newfoundland and Labrador

Ahmad, Masood (2013) Affordable filtration technology of safe drinking water for rural Newfoundland and Labrador. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (77MB)

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to design a cost-effective filtration system to reduce natural organic matter (NOM) in the intake water source and also to remove trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) in the drinking water systems of Torbay and Pouch Cove communities near St. John’s. To reduce the concentration of THMs and HAAs, a series of experiments were conducted on tap water using an inexpensive adsorbent. The results showed more than 95% removal of THMs and 35% of HAAs in the Pouch Cove drinking water using activated carbon. Another test was conducted with clean carbon without activation which shows significant removal of chloroform, bromodichloromethane, and bromoform in the THMs group and a high percentage removal of bromchloracetic acid, dichloroacetic acid, trichloroacetic acid, and dibromoacetic acid in the HAA group. Clean carbon was also used to remove total organic carbon (TOC) in the intake water source before chlorination. The results showed more than 92% removal to TOC from Pouch Cove and 65% removal from the Torbay intake water. The results showed that the formation potential of THMs and HAAs are significantly reduced due to low TOC values in the filtered water and low-cost adsorbent can be used as an effective adsorbent to supply safe drinking water to rural communities.

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