The goal of this paper is to review the technologies used for nitrate removal from water intended for human consumption. It also reviews the effects of nitrates on human health and the various legislative provisions in different states. The treatment technologies that will be detailed are: reverse osmosis, ion exchangers, biological denitrification and electrodialysis. For every technology, the following information will be provided: advantages, disadvantages, process performance and cost. Furthermore, there will also be examples of water treatment plants across the Globe that use these types of technologies for nitrate reduction.
Nitrate is the most common form of nitrogen in water. The presence of nitrates in drinking water can harm human health, this is why the maximum concentration of nitrates in potable water is imposed by law. The main treatment technologies used for treating this kind of water are reverse osmosis, ion exchangers, electrodialysis and biological denitrification. The goal of this paper is to determine the efficiency of biofilters in reducing the ammonium concentrations in water, depending on the carrier/filtration media used in the biofilters, the C:N:P ratio used and contact time between water and the attached biomass. The paper is based on the result obtained during experimental tests in which the concentration of nitrates in the raw water was 150 mg/l.
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