Center for Seawater Desalination Plant, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), 261 Cheomdan-gwagiro, Buk-gu, Gwangju 500-712, Republic of Korea.
Sci Total Environ. 2010 Nov 1;408(23):5958-65. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2010.08.057. Epub 2010 Sep 24.
From our previous study, an electrochemical process was determined to be a promising tool for disinfection in a seawater desalination system, but an investigation on the production of several hazardous by-products is still required. In this study, a more intensive exploration of the formation patterns of perchlorate and bromate during the electrolysis of seawater was conducted. In addition, the rejection efficiencies of the targeted by-products by membrane processes (microfiltration and seawater reverse osmosis) were investigated to uncover the concentrations remaining in the final product from a membrane-based seawater desalination system for the production of drinking water. On the electrolysis of seawater, perchlorate did not provoke any problem due to the low concentrations formed, but bromate was produced at a much higher level, resulting in critical limitation in the application of the electrochemical process to the desalination of seawater. Even though the formed bromate was rejected via microfiltration and reverse osmosis during the 1st and 2nd passes, the residual concentration was a few orders of magnitude higher than the USEPA regulation. Consequently, it was concluded that the application of the electrochemical process to seawater desalination cannot be recommended without the control of bromate.
从我们之前的研究中可以看出，电化学工艺被确定为海水淡化系统消毒的一种很有前途的工具，但仍需要对产生的几种危险副产物进行研究。在本研究中，我们更深入地研究了海水电解过程中高氯酸盐和溴酸盐的形成模式。此外，还研究了膜过程（微滤和海水反渗透）对目标副产物的去除效率，以揭示基于膜的海水淡化系统生产饮用水时最终产品中残留的浓度。在海水电解过程中，由于形成的浓度较低，高氯酸盐不会引起任何问题，但溴酸盐的产量要高得多，这对电化学工艺在海水淡化中的应用构成了严重限制。尽管在第 1 次和第 2 次通过时，形成的溴酸盐可以通过微滤和反渗透去除，但残留浓度仍比美国环保署的规定高出几个数量级。因此，结论是，如果不控制溴酸盐，电化学工艺就不能被推荐用于海水淡化。
