Objective To better understand the mechanism of chlorine resistance of mycobacteria and evaluate the efficiency of various disinfection processes.Methods Inactivation experiments of one strain Mycobacteria mucogenicum,isolated from a drinking water distribution system in South China were conducted with various chlorine disinfectants.Inactivation efficiency and disinfectant residual,as well as the formation of organic chloramines,were measured during the experiments.Results This strain of M.mucogenicum showed high resistance to chlorine.The CT values of 99.9% inactivation by free chlorine,monochloramine and chlorine dioxide were detected as 29.6±1.46,170±6.16,and 10.9±1.55 min（mg/L） respectively,indicating that chlorine dioxide exhibited significantly higher efficiency than free chlorine and monochloramine.It was also found that M.mucogenicum reacted with chlorine disinfectants more slowly than S.aureus,but consumed more chlorine disinfectants during longer time of contact.Lipid analysis of the cell construction revealed that 95.7% of cell membrane lipid of M.mucogenicum was composed of saturated long chain fatty acids.Saturated fatty acids were regarded as more stable and more hydrophilic which enabled the cell membrane to prevent the diffusion of chlorine.Conclusion It was concluded that different compositions of cell membrane might endow M.mucogenicum with a higher chlorine resistance.
XAD-8 resin isolation of organic matter in water was used to divide organic matter into the hydrophobic and hydrophilic fractions. A pilot plant was used to investigate the change in both fractions during conventional and advanced treatment processes. The treatment of hydrophobic organics （HPO）, rather than hydrophilic organicas （HPI）, should carry greater emphasis due to HPO’s higher trihalomethane formation potential （THMFP） and haloacetic acid formation potential （HAAFP）. The removal of hydrophobic matter and its transmission into hydrophilic matter reduced ultimate DBP yield during the disinfection process. The results showed that sand filtration, ozonation, and biological activated carbon （BAC） filtration had distinct influences on the removal of both organic fractions. Additionally, the combination of processes changed the organic fraction proportions present during treatment. The use of ozonation and BAC maximized organic matter removal efficiency, especially for the hydrophobic fraction. In sum, the combination of pre-ozonation, conventional treatment, and O 3 -BAC removed 48% of dissolved organic carbon （DOC）, 60% of HPO, 30% of HPI, 63% of THMFP, and 85% of HAAFP. The use of conventional treatment and O 3 -BAC without pre-ozonation had a comparable performance, removing 51% of DOC, 56% of HPO, 45% of HPI, 61% of THMFP, and 72% of HAAFP. The effectiveness of this analysis method indicated that resin isolation and fractionation should be standardized as an applicable test to help assess water treatment process efficiency.
Chao ChenXiaojian ZhangLingxia ZhuWenjie HeHongda Han
