AN ANALYTICAL APPROACH TO THE CHARACTERIZATION AND REMOVAL

The prevalence of natural organic matter (NOM) in water remains a huge challenge for water treatment companies and municipalities. NOM, however, is not a stand-alone problem as it affects water quality in many ways. NOM is largely responsible for the formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs) via its interaction with disinfectants during water disinfection. It is implicated for the undesirable colour, taste and odour of water and NOM even inhibits precipitation precursors which form the backbone of drinking water treatment. There is therefore no question that NOM, which is either a precursor to or direct cause of the problems highlighted above, should be considered as one of the critical design parameters to be considered for drinking water treatment. In our laboratories, research that involves the use of cyclodextrin (CD) polyurethanes for the removal of organic pollutants from water has been extensively investigated, and the CD polyurethanes have demonstrated the ability to effectively remove the organic species from water at low (ppb) concentrations.