Determination of chlorine demand in water and wastewater chlorination by oxidation-reduction potential

摘要

Chlorination is the most practical way for the destruction of pathogenic and other harmful organisms in water and wastewater treatment plants. However, highly erratic concentrations of ammonia is contained in most water and wastewater treatment plants, which will react to chlorine and seriously alter the required chlorine dosages in the control of chlorination. The conventional control of chlorine dosage is widely practical throughout the batch breakpoint chlorination test in the laboratory, which is not feasible for the requirement of real-time regulation of the chlorine demands. In this study, a simple automatic oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) titration system was developed for on-line determination of the chlorine demand. The experimental results showed that different decrease tendencies on ORP slope profiles were found to correlate to the ammonia concentrations in samples. In addition, the required chlorine demands were found to correlate to ammonia concentrations with a linear relationship. The ORP control strategy was, therefore, developed for on-line determination of the chlorine demands. Applying this ORP control strategy, the required chlorine demands were precisely predicted, and good disinfection efficiency was obtained in the wastewater chlorination experiments.