Full-scale modelling of an ozone reactor for drinking water treatment

In 2003, the Flemish Water Supply Company (VMW) extended its drinking water production site in Kluizen (near Ghent, Belgium) with a combined ozonation and biological granular activated carbon (BGAC) filtration process. Due to this upgrade, biostability increased, less chlorination was needed and drinking water quality improved significantly. The aim of this study was to describe the full-scale reactor with a limited set of equations. In order to describe the ozonation process, a model including key processes such as ozone decomposition, organic carbon removal, disinfection and bromate formation was developed. Kinetics were implemented in WEST® and simulation results were compared to real data. The predicting performance was verified with a goodness-of-fit test and key parameters were determined through a local sensitivity analysis. Parameters involving optical density (both rate constants and stoichiometric coefficients) strongly affect model output. Some parameters with respect to bromate and bacteria showed to be only, but to a large extent, sensitive to their associated concentrations. A scenario analysis was performed to study the system's behavior at different operational conditions. It was demonstrated that the model is able to describe the operation of the full-scale ozone reactor, however, further data collection for model validation is necessary.