Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2002ND11B

A Comparative Analysis of Fargo and Moorhead Ozonation Systems

Institute: North Dakota
Year Established: 2002 Start Date: 2002-05-01 End Date: 2003-12-31
Total Federal Funds: $11,312 Total Non-Federal Funds: $23,071

Principal Investigators: Wei Lin, Wei Lin

Project Summary: Ozone has been increasingly used as a disinfectant in water treatment processes in the United Sates. Ozone is a strong oxidant that also can be used for taste and odor control and organic matter removal. The use of ozone for disinfection is thought to reduce the potential formation of trihalomethanes (THMs) and other harmful disinfection by products (DBPs) associated with chlorine disinfection. Also, ozone is able to achieve disinfection with less contact time and concentration than other disinfectants. However, ozone demand and reactions are highly dependent upon pH, temperature, organic concentration and other factors. Therefore, it is more difficult to control ozonation systems. Incomplete oxidation of organics under certain conditions may also produce toxic by-products. Two water treatment plants using the same source of water are investigated in this study to compare and contrast the performance their ozonation systems.The impact of operation conditions on ozone demand, odor removal efficiency, and ozonation by-product formations are investigated in the study.The information gained will be valuable for other possible ozonation applications in the aquatic environment. The type of organics and the oxidation by-products produced during the ozonation process will be identified.