EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF TRIHALOMETHANES REMOVAL IN CHLORINATED DRINKING WATER SOURCES WITH CARBON NANOMATERIALS

In recent years, carbon nanomaterials have been used widely in water treatment technology. This study investigates to the removal of THMs from chlorinated drinking water sources by combined coagulation process using single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Terkos Lake water (TLW), Buyukcekmece Lake water (BLW) and Ulutan Lake water (ULW) were used as drinking water source in this study. Conventional coagulation using aluminum sulfate (alum) and ferric chloride (FeCl3) was also conducted using TLW, BLW and ULW samples. Also, the chlorination of raw water samples within a reaction time of 168 hours was conducted in accordance with Standard Methods 5710 B. The maximum removal percentages of TTHMs (92%) was observed with combined SWCNTs and FeCl3 in chlorinated TLW, followed by BLW (82%) and ULW (78%). In BLW and ULW, TTHMs removal (86% and 83%) was highest when using FeCl3 +MWCNTs. The TTHMs removal was lowest in ULW (39% for Alum and 45% for FeCl3). On the other hand, the removal of TTHMs increases in the acidic pH levels whereas decreases alkaline pH levels. In the meantime increases the ionic strength result in decreasing the TTHMs removal for chlorinated three water sources. The results reveal that combined coagulation using carbon nanomaterials is effective for the removal of THMs from various types of chlorinated water source waters.