Rapid, reliable analysis is important for early detection of contaminants in source water used for drinking water treatment. This paper describes the unique, sensitive non-destructive method of simultaneous absorbance and fluorescence excitation-emission mapping (ABEEM) to fingerprint contaminants. Automated modeling facilitates recognition of changes in source water composition including contamination events. This joint research project between PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency, and HORIBA Instruments Inc., investigated occurrence of various oil and poly-aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) in the presence of high natural organic matter (NOM) concentrations. The ABEEM method corrects fluorescence inner-filter effects to yield quantitative data largely independent of NOM concentration. Classical least squares (CLS) regression established individual calibration models for various oil and PAH compounds in pure water, and models were then validated with oil and PAH compounds spiked in raw water. This ABEEM and CLS analysis approach can serve as an effective source water screening tool for oil contamination because of :(1) rapid data collection time (2- 3 minutes per sample); (2) high sensitivity in parts-per-billion (ppb) for oil and PAH compounds; and (3) minimal sample preparation compared to conventional solid-phase extraction (SPE) and liquid or gas-chromatographic analytical methods. In this paper, we discuss the use of ABEEM and CLS methods as effective early warning systems for source water monitoring.

Simultaneous absorbance and fluorescence measurements for monitoring organic pollutants in source water

256th National Meeting (2018)

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