Formation and Fate of Nitromethane in Ozone-Based Water Reuse Processes

Ozonation is widely used in wastewater reclamation treatment trains, either for micropollutant control or as a disinfectant and preoxidant in certain reuse processes. We recently found that ozonation of secondary effluent produces nitromethane, which can be efficiently transformed to genotoxic halonitromethanes by chlorination. In this work, the fate of nitromethane through water reuse treatment trains was characterized by analyzing samples from five reuse operations employing ozone. Nitromethane was poorly (<50%) rejected by reserve osmosis (RO), not removed by, and in some cases, increased by ultraviolet/advanced oxidation processes (UV/AOP). Sufficient nitromethane remained after advanced treatment that when chlorine was added to mimic secondary disinfection, halonitromethane formation was consistently observed. In contrast, biological activated carbon removed most (>75%) nitromethane. Bench-scale experiments were conducted to verify low removal by RO in clean systems and with wastewater effluent and to quantify the kinetics of direct and indirect photolysis of nitromethane in UV/AOP. An explanation for increasing nitromethane concentration during AOP is proposed. These results indicate that nitromethane presents a unique hazard to direct potable reuse systems, due to its ubiquitous formation during wastewater ozonation, poor removal by RO and UV/AOP, and facile conversion into genotoxic halonitromethanes upon chlorine addition.

Automated summary

Nitromethane is poorly removed by reverse osmosis and ultraviolet/advanced oxidation processes in water reuse treatment trains, but can be effectively removed by biological activated carbon. Its ubiquitous formation during wastewater ozonation and facile conversion into genotoxic halonitromethanes upon chlorine addition present a unique hazard to direct potable reuse systems.