Formation of organic chloramines during chlor(am)ination and UV/chlor(am)ination of algae organic matter in drinking water
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Updated: Mar 17, 2026

Quantification of Heavy Metals and Other Inorganic Contaminants on the Productivity of Microalgae
Published on: July 10, 2015
Tian-Yang Zhang1, Yi-Li Lin2, Bin Xu1
1State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Institute of Disinfection By-product Control in Water Treatment, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, PR China.
Abstract:
Surface water are frequently subjected to problems of algal blooms and release of algae organic matter (AOM) from the algae cells, which cause many water quality issues. This study investigated the formation of organic chloramines and nitrogenous disinfection by-products (N-DBPs) during chlor(am)ination and UV/chlor(am)ination of AOM in drinking water. AOM caused higher organic chloramine formation than humic acid and fulvic acid during chlor(am)ination. The formation of organic chloramines increased first and then decreased with the increase of free chlorine dosage, but kept increasing with the increase of NH2Cl dosage. During AOM chlorination, the formation of organic chloramines kept decreasing as the reaction time went by, and the maximum organic chloramine proportion (79.1%) in total chlorine occurred at 8 h. However, during AOM chloramination, the formation of organic chloramines increased first, decreased in the following and then increased again as the reaction time went by, and the maximum organic chloramine proportion (22.1%) in total chlorine occurred at 24 h. UV irradiation pretreatment did not effectively influence organic chloramine formation during AOM chlor(am)ination, but accelerated the degradation of organic chloramines during chloramination. Besides, UV pretreatment enhanced the formation of N-DBPs during the subsequent chlor(am)ination of AOM, especially dichloroacetonitrile.
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