Effects of water quality on the coagulation performances of humic acids irradiated with UV light

The presence of humic acid in drinking water treatment has received significant attention in recent years because of its adverse effects on the removal of many pollutants in coagulation. In this paper, the effects of water quality including pH, turbidity, alkalinity, and hardness on the removal of humic acid were investigated in a UV light hybridized coagulation process. Our results suggested that UV light radiation could effectively improve the removal rate of humic acid in coagulation under both neutral and basic conditions, and the variations of the selected water quality parameters had little adverse effect on the function of UV light. After UV light radiation, the removal rate of the nitro-humic acid (NHA) increased from 20% to 60% in coagulation, and increased further to 75% and 85% for the raw waters with 10.0 NTU kaolin and 100 mg·L^-1 hardness, respectively. In addition to NHA, the removal rates of the humic acid extracted from peat coal (PHA) and the humic acid provided by Japan metals and chemicals company (JHA) in coagulation were also improved, both in the range of 80%–90% after undergoing UV light radiation. By changing the radiation location from prior to coagulation to the flocculation process, similar experimental results were obtained. The formation of positive charged sites after UV light radiation was considered to be the primary factor that led to an enhanced removal of the humic acid in coagulation.