Table A2.2: Treatment efficacies for inorganic chemical contaminants of health significance

Return to the point in the document where this table is located.

Table symbols: * limited removal; ** more than 50% removal; *** more than 80% removal.

Where a < value is noted in the table, this is the minimum concentration (mg/L) that can be achieved by the process, even if the combination of initial concentration and percentage removal indicate that a lower concentration can be achieved.

Contaminant	Coagulation	Precipitation softening	Membrane filtration	Slow sand filtration	Activated carbon	Activated alumina	Ion exchange	Greensand filter	Chlorination	Ozonation	Chlorine dioxide treatment
Metals (the form of the metal affects its removal; these are best-case values)
Antimony	*a		**b				*c
Arsenic	*** <0.005	*** <0.005	*** <0.005			*** <0.005	*** <0.005
Barium		***
Cadmium	*** <0.002	*** <0.002	*** <0.002	**d			*** <0.002
Chromium	***e	***f					***g <0.01
Copper	***h	***i			***j		***k <0.05
Lead	***e, l	***i		**e	***m		*** <0.01
Lithium
Manganese			*** <0.05				*** <0.02	***n	*** <0.05	*** <0.05
Mercury	*** <0.0001	*** <0.0001	*** <0.0001		*** <0.0001
Molybdenum
Nickel		***i			**m		***k <0.01
Selenium	**		*** <0.01			*** <0.01	*** <0.01	***o <0.01
Silver	**p	**p
Tin
Uranium	**	**				*** <0.001	*** <0.001
Non-metals
Beryllium	***q	***q
Boron							***r <0.1
Fluoride	**		*** <1			*** <1
Disinfectants and disinfection by‑products
Bromate
Chlorate
Chlorine					***s
Chlorite					*t
Cyanogen chloride									**u
Monochloramine
Miscellaneous
Cyanide									**s	***v	***v
Nitrate			*** <5	** <5			*** <5
Nitrite				***4					*** <0.1	*** <0.1

References Table A2.2:

a Kang et al., 2003, Wat. Res., 37, 4171–4179

b Kang et al., 2000, Desalination, 131, 293–298

c USEPA, 1998, Small system compliance technologies list for the non–microbial contaminants regulated before 1996, EPA 815–R–98–002

d Erb et al., 1982, Wat. Sci. Tech., 14, 641–653

e Choudhury et al., 2004, Chem. Biochem. Eng., Q. 18, 295–302

f Parks and Edwards, 2006, J. Environ. Eng., 132, 489–496

g Korngold et al., 2003, Separation and Purification Technology, 33, 179–187

h Truitt and Weber, 1979, Wat. Res., 13, 1171–1177

i Swiderska-Broz, 1991, Wat. Sci. Technol., 24, 247–254

j Ahmedna et al., 2004, Wat. Res., 38, 1062–1068

k Korngold et al., 1996, Desalination, 104, 197–201

l Hankins et al., 2006, Separation and Purification Technology, 51, 48–56

m Corapciolu and Huang, 1987, Wat. Res., 21, 1031–1044

n Spoljaric and Crawford, 1978, Environ. Geol., 2, 215–222

o Viraraghavan, 1999, Water Supply, 17(3–4) 163–167

p Benefield and Morgan, 1990, Chemical Precipitation, in Water Quality and Treatment, 4th ed., American Water Works Assn., McGraw–Hill Inc., New York

q Lytle et al., 1992, Aqua (Oxford), 42, 330–339

r Simmonot et al., 2000, Wat. Res., 34,109–116

s White, 1986, Handbook of Chlorination, Van Nostrand Reinhold Co, New York

t Gonce and Voudrais, 1994, Wat. Res., 28, 1059–1069

u Na and Olson, 2004, Environ. Sci. Technol., 38, 6037–6043

v Parga et al., 2003, Waste Management, 23, 183–191

Return to the point in the document where this table is located.