Subproductos de desinfección derivados de la materia orgánica algar disuelta de tres diferentes grupos de microalgas: alga verde, cianobacteria y diatomea

Disinfection byproducts (DBP) are unintended consequence of the treatment process of water for human consumption. They are generated from the reaction between organic matter and disinfectant. One type of organic matter that could react with disinfectant is algal organic matter (AOM). This type of organic matter is of great importance because of its ubiquity, and its difficulty to remove through traditional water treatment process. Additionally, AOM is precursor of DBP that may bring serious effects on human health. Therefore, in this study the AOM of three different types of colombian algae (green algae Chlorella sp. CIIA 0115, cyanobacteria Pseudanabaena sp. CIIA 0215 and diatom Nitzschia sp. CIIA 0315) were characterized and the DBPs resulting from chlorination of the AOM were identified. The characterization results showed that all types of algal organic matter evaluated are hydrophilic with low SUVA. The DOC for these algae is between 8.48 mg / L and 78.51mg / L, protein concentration between 12.8mg / L and 31.5mg / L and the concentration of carbohydrate is between 10.811mg / L and 28.802mg / L. Furthermore, the analysis of the results of excitation emission matrix (EEM) showed that the AOM studied has predominance of proteins, amino acids and proteinaceous material. With regard to DBP, three groups were identified: trihalomethane (THM), haloacetic acid (HAA) and emerging disinfection byproducts (SPDe). It was found that the two predominant groups of DBP are HAA and THM with relative presence of 47.5% to 91.5% and 0.0% to 47.4%, respectively. It is anticipated that the relative importance of these DBP depends on the type of organic matter used, rich in nitrogen compounds.