INDIRECT POTABLE REUSE : A NEW APPROACH FOR FAST BASE NEUTRAL ORGANIC EVALUATION

Conventional chromatographic data analysis strategies are generally not adapted to monitor highly complex base neutral organic solutions such as water reuse effluents. The difficulty of this analysis resides in the large number of compounds detected and the wide range of concentrations at which these compounds are found. The main challenge is to identify and quantify each compound or specific target compounds.Integrated Chromatographic Analysis (ICA) is a quantitative broad spectrum chromatographic interpretation methodology developed to respond to the constraints associated with water reuse effluents and other polluted natural resources. It uses both numerical and statistical analysis to highlight chemical changes and provide information on the number of compounds present in solution, their concentration and possible changes in distribution using the retention time of each compound.Three treatment processes used in indirect-potable reuse schemes were evaluated: pre-ozonation followed by a biological activated carbon filter, lime clarification and membrane filtration. Data for each process are presented and discussed in this paper. In addition to being a very powerful and reliable tool, ICA has shown to be simple of use. It can be directly applied by engineers, water managers or health professionals as a preliminary evaluation of the base neutral content of water samples.