Biobased Materials as Potential Precursors for Disinfection By-Products in Water

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-9-2021

Publication Title

Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering

Volume

9

Issue

5

First page number:

1

Last page number:

5

Abstract

This study investigated the fate of biobased materials in aquatic environments, focusing on their degradability and chemical characteristics of the breakdown products. Two commercial biobased materials, flax biocomposite (biopolymer or BPM) and biodegradable tissue paper (biopaper or BPP), were included in solubility and disinfection by-product (trihalomethanes, THMs) formation experiments. Deionized (DI), tap, river, and lake waters were used in this study. The results indicate that BPP had high disintegration and high dissolution of organics while BPM had low dissolution of organics. After incubation for seven days at an initial concentration of 20 g/L for BPM and 10 g/L for BPP in DI water, the total solids produced from BPM was 4.3 mg/L and 136 mg/L for BPP. Soluble organics represented by dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from both biobased materials were highly biodegradable up to 85%. Our results show that soluble organics from both materials reacted with chlorine to form THMs, mainly as chloroform. Even though the total THMs provided by BPP was higher, the reactivity of soluble organics from BPM with chlorine to form THMs (40 µg THMs formed/mg DOC) was more than twice that of soluble organics from BPP (18 µg THMs formed/mg DOC). Disinfection by-products potential and biodegradable DOC of biobased materials were revealed for the first time. Our work demonstrated that biobased materials, if not appropriately managed, could have adverse effects on drinking water quality.

Keywords

Aquatic environment; Biobased materials; Precursors; Trihalomethanes

Disciplines

Chemistry | Environmental Chemistry | Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Language

English

UNLV article access

Search your library

Share

COinS