GEL-PERMEATION - A MEANS TO CHARACTERIZE WASTE-WATER AND RESIDUAL DISSOLVED ORGANIC-MATTER IN EFFLUENTS

Motivated by the lack of qualitative analytical parameters to characte rize wastewater and wastewater treatment process effluents, the presen t work investigated a dissolved organic matter separation technique su pplemented by conventional analytical techniques (TOC, UV absorption) to better describe the nature of dissolved compounds. This technique b ased on gel permeation was first optimized for its application to urba n wastewater characterization in terms of organic compound molecular w eight distribution. The technique was then used to qualitatively compa re two different wastewater treatment processes. The comparison showed markedly different removal efficiencies on each class of compounds de fined by a molecular weight range and demonstrated that this technique could be used to better characterize treatment processes.