Occurrence of N-nitrosodimethylamine precursors in wastewater treatment plant effluent and their fate during ultrafiltration-reverse osmosis membrane treatment

Water Sci Technol. 2011;63(4):605-12. doi: 10.2166/wst.2011.207.

Abstract

The formation of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) is of major concern among wastewater recycling utilities practicing disinfection with chloramines. The NDMA formation potential (FP) test is a simple and straightforward method to evaluate NDMA precursor concentrations in waters. In this paper we show the NDMA FP results of a range of tertiary wastewater treatment plants that are also the source for production of recycled water using an Ultrafiltration - Reverse Osmosis (UF-RO) membrane process. The results indicate that the NDMA FP of different source waters range from 350 to 1020±20 ng/L. The fate of these NDMA precursors was also studied across the different stages of two Advanced Water Treatment Plants (AWTP) producing recycled water. These results show that more than 98.5±0.5% of NDMA precursors are effectively removed by the Reverse Osmosis (RO) membranes used at the AWTPs. This drastically reduces any potential for re-formation of NDMA after the RO stage even if chloramines may be present (or added) there.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Dimethylnitrosamine / analysis*
  • Dimethylnitrosamine / chemistry*
  • Dimethylnitrosamine / isolation & purification
  • Membranes, Artificial*
  • Osmosis*
  • Ultrafiltration / methods*
  • Waste Disposal, Fluid / methods*
  • Water Purification / methods*

Substances

  • Membranes, Artificial
  • Dimethylnitrosamine