Reduction of total organic carbon by direct filtration: A pilot study on the Seine river

A pilot scale study of direct filtration was conducted on the surface water of the Seine River. The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of replacing an existing installation of slow sand fitters with direct filtration. The objective of this paper is to explain the effects of chemical and physical parameters on the removal of TOC, the total volume of water production, and the rate of development of head loss in the filters. The results of this study showed that chemical factors affect filtration performance far more than physical factors. Optimization of direct filtration can largely be accomplished by proper selection of coagulant type and dosage. Filtration performance was not predicted simply by considering influent concentrations of turbidity, TOC, or UV adsorbance. While the levels of TOC determined optimum coagulant dose, seasonal variation in the nature of the organic matrix probably caused variation in filtration performance. This study utilized a technique for organic analysis (gel permeation chromatography - pyrolysis- GC-MS) which may prove to be very valuable not only in determining the chemical characteristics of the background organic matrix of water, but also in defining treated objectives and design.