MONITORING AND TREATMENT OF ACRYLAMIDE IN DRINKING WATER AND INDUSTRIAL WASTE WATER

Abstract

Degradation of water quality is a major issue in Egypt. Discharge of untreated or partially treated industrial and domestic wastewater are often factors that affect the quality of water. Acrylamide one of the hazard industrial wastes where it is a probable carcinogen and has been shown to be a neurotoxic agent in animals and humans. The principal source of acrylamide in the environment is the release of residual monomers from polyacrylamide flocculants. Polyacrylamide is used in many products and activities such as grout, cement, drinking water and wastewater treatment, pesticides and food manufacturing. The objective of present study is to monitor acrylamide monomer concentration in raw Nile water and in treated tap water produced from a set of water treatment plants over one year during different climatic conditions and also monitoring of acrylamide residues on the discharged wastewater from several industries. Also, discussion of traditional additives of chlorine and alum in water treatment plants on the acrylamide removal were carried out. In addition, evaluating the effectiveness of using potassium permanganate as oxidant and granular activated carbon as potential adsorbents for acrylamide reduction in water. The optimum operating conditions of acrylamide removal by potassium permanganate and granular activated carbon (GAC) were studied with respect to the initial pH, contact time and dose. Reaction kinetic data were fitted to pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order for potassium permanganate, in addition to intra-particle diffusion model for GAC. The experimental data of GAC also fitted to Langmuir and Freundlich models to analyze the adsorption equilibrium.