Effect of pre-ozonation on the formation and speciation of DBPs

•DBP precursor reduction by ozone follows the order of DHANs > THMs & THAAs > DHAAs.•Pre-ozonation substantially increased the DHAA precursors in the waters with low SUVA values.•Pre-ozonation shifted the formation of DBPs to more brominated species.•The BSFs of chlorination DBPs increased by 1–8 percentage points after pre-ozonation.

The objective of this study was to quantitatively evaluate the effect of pre-ozonation on the formation and speciation of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) from subsequent chlorination and chloramination. Laboratory experiments were conducted on six diverse natural waters with low to medium bromide concentrations. Four groups of DBPs were investigated in this study: trihalomethanes (THMs), trihaloacetic acids (THAAs), dihaloacetic acids (DHAAs), and dihaloacetonitriles (DHANs). The results showed that the relative destructions of chlorination DBP precursors by ozone generally follow the order of DHANs > THMs & THAAs > DHAAs. Pre-ozonation substantially increased the DHAA precursors in the waters with low specific ultraviolet absorbance values. Pre-ozonation shifted the formation of DBPs to more brominated species. The bromine substitution factors (BSF) of different chlorination DBPs typically increased by 1–8 percentage points after ozonation. Pre-ozonation reduced the yields of chloramination DHAAs and THMs and increased the BSFs of chloramination DHAAs by 1–6 percentage points.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload high-quality image (104 K)Download as PowerPoint slide