Survey on water treatment efficiency for the Sa Dec river - Dong Thap with PAC combined activated carbon

Abstract

The study was conducted to evaluate and compare the water treatment efficiency of the surface water in the Tien River in Sa Dec city - Dong Thap province by two treatment methods: PAC + Polymer and PAC + Polymer + activated carbon. Water treatment efficiency is evaluated through four water quality criteria: Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), ammonium (NH4⁺), and turbidity. Research results show the effectiveness of using PAC and Polymer to treat turbidity, COD, and TSS. COD removal efficiency reached 54.54%, ammonium content decreased to 0.15mg/L, and turbidity was reduced to 0.2NTU. Adding activated carbon to the reaction further increases the COD removal efficiency, with efficiency up to 76.79%. In this study, with turbidity and TSS criteria, the use of coagulation-flocculation with activated carbon always achieved good results, the water after treatment reached QCVN 01 - 1:2018/BYT (Bộ Y tế, 2018). However, with COD and ammonium criteria, it is still not possible to ensure that the treated water reaches the allowable value specified in QCVN 01 - 1:2018/BYT (Bộ Y tế, 2018). Though, the research results show that the use of activated carbon enhances the treatment efficiency, and has the potential to lead to a solution that uses less PAC chemicals and still gives the same treatment efficiency.