Singapore Membrane Technology Centre, Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Singapore Membrane Technology Centre, Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Chemosphere. 2019 Apr;220:107-115. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2018.12.066. Epub 2018 Dec 12.
The presence of transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) in water bodies has been related to several adverse impacts in various water treatment processes. In recent years, there have been an increasing number of publications relating to TEP. Unfortunately, this increased interest in TEP measurement has not been accompanied by significant improvement in the analysis method or TEP monitoring. Currently, the most common method to analyze and quantify TEP only allows offline, and often offsite measurement, causing delays and slow response times. This paper introduces an improved method for TEP monitoring using a membrane-based spectrophotometric technique to quantify TEP in various water bodies. The proposed TEP monitor involves a crossflow filtration unit, reagent injection and a spectrophotometer system. The TEP retained on the membrane surface is stained by Alcian blue and the amount deposited is quantified directly using an optic fibre reflectance probe coupled with a spectrophotometer. The novel method shows a linear relationship with various concentrations of Xanthan gum (a model representing TEP). When tested with various water samples, the proposed method was found to correlate well with the conventional method. Several advantages of this novel method are shorter analysis time, increased accuracy, and the potential to be further developed into an online system.
水体中透明质酸聚合物颗粒 (TEP) 的存在与各种水处理过程中的多种不利影响有关。近年来，与 TEP 相关的出版物越来越多。不幸的是，对 TEP 测量的兴趣增加并没有伴随着分析方法或 TEP 监测的显著改进。目前，分析和量化 TEP 最常用的方法仅允许离线，通常是场外测量，导致延迟和响应时间缓慢。本文介绍了一种使用基于膜的分光光度技术监测 TEP 的改进方法，用于量化各种水体中的 TEP。所提出的 TEP 监测器涉及错流过滤单元、试剂注入和分光光度计系统。保留在膜表面上的 TEP 用藻蓝蛋白染色，并用光纤反射探头与分光光度计直接定量沉积量。该新方法与黄原胶（代表 TEP 的模型）的各种浓度呈线性关系。用各种水样进行测试时，发现该方法与传统方法相关性良好。该新方法的几个优点是分析时间更短、准确性更高，并且有可能进一步开发成在线系统。
