On the elimination of organic microcontaminants by flocculation with lime hydrate

For the purpose of utilizing domestic flocculants for the treatment of water and of reducing by this the equivalent imports of metal salts, in this paper the result of investigations made on model waters and on a river water sample is described. The model waters contained the pesticides Atrazin, Diuron and 2,4-D, which partly were polluted in addition with different quantities of fulvic and humic acids as well as with colloidal substances causing turbidity (Friedland clay and finely dispersed cellulose). The investigations were supplemented by testing several adsorption media as γ-aluminium oxide, active carbon and diatom earth. In the presence of fulvic and humic substances one does not succeed in eliminating the investigated herbicides by flocculation with lime hydrate. Only after chemical side reactions between these contained substances the adsorbability is clearly influenced. The different elimination efficiencies at different reaction conditions are explained in detail.