Destruction of Volatile Organic Contaminants in Drinking Water by Ozone Treatment

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Abstract
Controlled, pilot-plant ozone treatment tests were conducted on twenty-nine volatile organic contaminants in distilled water and groundwater. Results show that aromatic compounds and alkenes are well removed by ozone treatment, but that alkanes are poorly removed. Also, efficiency of destruction improved for the alkenes and aromatic compounds with increasing applied ozone dosage and, for some alkanes, with increasing pH. For most compounds, the efficacy of ozone was not severely affected by the background water matrix. Generally, information gathered from the literature regarding rate constants for the ozone treatment of compounds in the gaseous phase or in organic solution predicted, to a useful degree, the effectiveness of ozone in treating aqueous solutions in the present study. Several of the test conditions selected for this preliminary study may be similar to those found in drinking water treatment plants. Consequently the findings of this research may help guide utilities in their choice of alternative treatments to meet Maximum Contaminant Levels for volatile organic contaminants such as trichloroethylene and benzene.