Trihalomethane formation potential prediction using some chemical functional groups and bulk parameters

This study was conducted to determine the influence of some chemical functional groups (COOH, phenolic-OH and organic nitrogen) and bulk parameters (UV 260 and DOC) on the trihalomethane formation potential (THMFP) of various treated industrial wastewaters. The samples were analyzed for UV 260, DOC, and THMFP. They were further fractionated into hydrophobic (humic) and hydrophilic (nonhumic) fractions using the XAD-8 resin, then bulk and specific chemical functional groups were determined on both fractions. Regression analyses were carried out among the parameters analyzed with THMFP as the dependent variable. The hydrophilic fractions contained higher DOC and had larger contribution to the bulk THMFP compared to the hydrophobic fractions. Simple regression analysis showed that although UV 260 and DOC correlated better with THMFP, the correlation values obtained were not statistically significant. Correlations using bulk parameters as well as chemical functional groups taken one at a time could not predict THMFP. The parameters that influenced the formation of THMs based on a stepwise and multiple regression analyses were UV 260, organic nitrogen, and phenolic-OH in the nonhumic fractions (hydrophilic) and UV 260 and organic nitrogen in the humic fractions (hydrophobic). The estimated THMFP obtained from the equation derived from the statistical analyses correlated significantly with the observed values at 99% level of confidence.