Evaluation of performance of hybrid and conventional coagulants in drinking water treatment

Conventional drinking water treatment plants are primarily operated to remove turbidity, known as solid or particulate matter in water, and to disinfect microorganisms that are harmful to human health. However, pollutants such as taste-odor, iron and manganese, organic matter, and algae can also be removed in this conventional treatment plant. The processes used in these plants are aeration, pre-oxidation, coagulation-flocculation-sedimentation (or clarification), filtration and disinfection. Today, organic matter removal in drinking water treatment has gained as much importance as turbidity removal and has created the need to use new coagulants. This thesis study consists of 3 separate stages. In the first stage, monthly monitoring of 99 water quality parameters defined in the Regulation on the Quality and Treatment of Waters Providing Drinking Water at the inlet and outlet of the drinking water treatment plant was carried out throughout 2023. According to the monitoring results, the inlet total organic carbon (TOC) values vary between 2.07-3.42. In the second stage of the thesis, TOC removal was carried out with conventional coagulants widely used in drinking water treatment plants. TOC removal with conventional coagulants was determined between 10-50%. In the third stage, it was aimed to determine the effect of the use of hybrid coagulants on treatment performance in drinking water treatment plants to reduce total organic carbon. Today, the issue that has gained importance in drinking water treatment processes in general is to provide better removal of these compounds. The most economical and simple method applied in existing conventional drinking water treatment plants in order to increase the efficiency of organic matter removal is the determination of alternative coagulants. Coagulants with different chemical contents were tested within the scope of the thesis study. The highest TOC removal was provided with Coagulant 1 with inorganic content with a rate of 54%. The highest TOC removal using hybrid coagulant was determined as 44% with Coagulant 7. Hybrid coagulants enable coagulation units, which are widely used in our country, to be evaluated as multifunctional units that provide organic matter removal in addition to their existing turbidity and particulate matter removal targets.