Modeling Nicotine-Induced Chlorine Loss in Drinking Water Using Updated EPANET-MSX

Multispecies water quality modeling is critical for simulating complex chemical reactions in drinking water distribution systems. An updated EPANET 2.2-compatible version of EPANET multi-species eXtension (EPANET-MSX) was used, which included dispersion and improved mass balance reporting, to simulate an experimental study. The use of EPANET-MSX was supplemented by an automated Python script to process experimental data, handle model execution, and analyze results. Nicotine-associated chlorine loss in drinking water-initially investigated from a drinking water security perspective-modeled with EPANET-MSX was compared with bottle test and test injection data. Two reaction models were tested (with and without a reactive intermediate), and the model that included a reactive intermediate nicotine species using dispersion was found to produce the best model agreement with experimental data. These results provide a demonstration of the new features within EPANETMSX in the context of the nicotine-chlorine reaction.