Effect of medium-pressure UV irradiation on bromate concentrations in drinking water, a pilot-scale study

This study investigated the potential for bromate removal from drinking water on irradiation with medium-pressure UV lamps—a technique gaining considerable interest for drinking water disinfection. Waters from two different sources were spiked with 20 μg/L of bromate and irradiated with UV fluences up to 718 mJ/cm2 utilizing a pilot-scale reactor (Calgon Carbon Corp.) at a flow of 76 L/min (20 gallon/min). Essentially no removal was observed in one of the source waters. Limited bromate removal, up to 19%, was observed in the second source water at high UV fluences (696 mJ/cm2) and a fluence-response relationship was clearly evident. All removals would be negligible at UV fluences anticipated for drinking water disinfection ( 40 mJ/cm2). Different water characteristics, in particular competitive absorption by nitrate and possibly DOC, were most likely responsible for the differences in bromate removal in the waters tested. The source water that did not show any removal had a higher nitrate concentration (4 vs. 0.1 mg N/L) and also a higher DOC concentration (4.1 vs. 3.1 mg C/L) than the other source water which showed 19% bromate removal.