AWWA WQTC65723

Treatment of surface water sources with a high degree of eutrophication requires special measures. Since filtration is the last unit operation in any given treatment train to remove colloidal and particulate matter from the raw water source, its importance is very relevant to the production of drinking water which meets current potability criteria. Polymer addition in the coagulation step can benefit the filtration step greatly. The polymers employed in the treatment of water supplies as filtration aids have been of the high molecular weight type, anionic or nonionic. This work focused on assessing the utilization of cationic polymers as filter aids, thus looking into a new option for drinking water treatment. Since there is not yet a consistent theoretical basis to make it possible to determine the ideal polymer type and corresponding optimum dosage for a given treatment train and raw water source, the only way to establish parameters towards rational polymer is to conduct systematic and extensive laboratory and pilot scale testing. Includes 6 references, tables, figures.