Title

Assimilable organic carbon (AOC) and biodegradable dissolved organic carbon (BDOC): Complementary measurements

Authors

Authors

I. C. Escobar;A. A. Randall

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Water Res.

Keywords

assimilable organic carbon (AOC); biodegradable dissolved organic carbon; (BDOC); biostability; membrane filtration; NANOFILTRATION MEMBRANES; DRINKING-WATER; MATTER; SYSTEM; OZONE; NF; Engineering, Environmental; Environmental Sciences; Water Resources

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the necessity of measuring both assimilable organic carbon (AOC) and biodegradable dissolved organic carbon (BDOC) as indicators of bacterial regrowth potential. AOC and BDOC have often been measured separately as indicators of bacterial regrowth, or together as indicators of bacterial regrowth and disinfection by-product formation potential, respectively. However, this study proposes that both AOC and BDOC should be used as complementary measurements of bacterial regrowth potential. In monitoring of full-scale membrane filtration, it was determined that nanofiltration (NF) removed over 90% of the BDOC while allowing the majority of the AOC through. Heterotrophic plate counts (HPC) remained low during the entire period of monitoring due to high additions of disinfectant residual. In a two-year monitoring of a water treatment plant that switched its treatment process from chlorination to chlorination and ozonation, it was observed that the plant effluent AOC increased by 127% while BDOC increased by 49% after the introduction of ozone. Even though AOC is a fraction of BDOC, measuring only one of these parameters can potentially under- or over-estimate the bacterial regrowth potential of the water. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

Water Research

Volume

35

Issue/Number

18

Publication Date

1-1-2001

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

4444

Last Page

4454

WOS Identifier

WOS:000172436800023

ISSN

0043-1354

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