A new perspective for Dissolved Organic Matter in water potabilization: Exploitation before removal

The Dissolved Organic matter (DOM) has been demonstrated to contribute to water self-cleaning and wastederived substances similar to DOM have already been tested as Fe(III) complexants to degrade compounds of emerging concern (CECs) via photo-Fenton process at pH 5-6. On the other sideDOM has to be removed during natural water potabilization because it negatively affects taste and smell and yields toxic disinfection byproducts. In the present work, the DOM exploitation before removal has been explored for the first time. In particular, DOM has been developed as an iron complexing agent for the photo-Fenton degradation of caffeine (taken as representative CEC) in water matrix. The effect of pH, DOM concentration and Fe(II) concentration on the process has been studied. The formation of DOM-Fe(III) complexes has been demonstrated through potentiometric and fluorescence measurements. Promising results for caffeine degradation have been obtained, also when applying the method to a riverine water sample.