[Formation of disinfection by-products: temperature effect and kinetic modeling]

Water temperature has significant effects on the disinfection by-product (DBP) formation and concentration in many water utilities and distribution systems. To study the temperature effect on the DBP concentration, the uniform formation condition (UFC) test was referred in testing the formation concentration of DBPs [including (trihalomethanes) THMs and (haloacetic acids) HAAs] at different temperatures during chlorination of the humic acid (HA) solution. A kinetic model was consequently proposed to predict DBP concentration during chlorination. Results show that for the three detected DBPs, including chloroform (CHCl3), dichloroacetic acid (DCAA) and trichloroacetic acid (TCAA), increasing temperature could considerably enhance both the DBP formation rates and the maximum DBP concentrations, where the maximum concentrations increase exponentially with the water temperature (R2 > 0.90). By using the data-processing software Origin, the detected DBP values were fitted using the proposed first order kinetic model, and the result showed a strong correlation for each DBP at various temperatures (R > 0.94). The apparent reaction rate constant k was also derived for each DBP. In order to quantify the temperature effect on DBP formation, the Arrhenius Equation was employed to calculate the apparent reaction activation energy for each DBP-22.3, 25.5 and 40.8 kJ x mol(-1) for CHCl3, DCAA and TCAA, respectively. By comparing the model predicted and the detected DBP values at 20 and 30 degrees C, the model showed a strong performance in predicting DBP formation concentrations, which indicated the reliability and validity of this proposed kinetic model.