POTABLE WATER TREATMENT BY POLYACRYLAMIDE BASE FLOCCULANTS, COUPLED WITH AN INORGANIC COAGULANT

For this study, we polymerized polyacrylamide base flocculants (PAA) and tested their properties and settling efficiency as a treatment for potable water. The most common chemicals for potable water treatment in Korea are alum or PAC. However, due to various reasons (such as rainy season or algae), inorganic flocculants cannot be solely depended on to solve all the problems caused by the poor quality of inflow water. When PAA coupled with coagulants in a potable water purification process is used, the turbidity removal efficiency increases by a factor of three on a single chemical system using PAC (Raw water: 5.21 NTU; Treated PAA+PAC: 0.34 NTU; and, Treated PAC: 1.04 NTU). It is possible to offset the toxic effect of residual monomers in treated water using PAA, because the concentrations of residual acrylamide are less than 400 mg/L in the polymer itself and less than $0.04\;{\mu}g/L$ in the treated water base at a dosage of 0.1 mg/L. Therefore, PAAs may be a workable, and dependable, potable water treatment process for the high pollutant level of resource water.