The Composition of Dissolved Organic Matter and its Impact on Water Treatment in a Changing Climate
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Leeds
Department Name: Sch of Geography
Abstract
This project seeks to build resilience to the water supply chain supporting economic growth. Clean drinking water that requires minimal chemical and energy to treat it, particularly as we face stress from climate change, is vital for underpinning our economy as identified by the Government's Green Paper 'Building Our Industrial Strategy' 2017. In the UK 11.4 million people rely on peatlands for their drinking water. Dissolved organic matter concentrations in rivers draining peatlands are high and result in highly coloured water; deterioration in water colour results in breaches of European Union drinking water standards and an increase in water treatment costs. It also has health implications as the chlorination of highly coloured water can result in the production of carcinogenic disinfection by-products which are strictly regulated and very costly to deal with. When water colour peaks become too severe water companies have to invest tens of millions of pounds in capital for every new treatment plant (and there are hundreds of such plants in the UK at risk) plus the additional expense of running those plants. At the same time, in-stream processing of dissolved organic matter leads to greenhouse gas emissions from water bodies that are under-represented in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports. There is limited understanding of factors that control the composition and processing of dissolved organic matter and the treatability of drinking water. For water companies, policy makers and society there is now an urgent need to understand how water treatment can be made more effective, and the outcomes of this project will help to optimise water treatment performance to deal with threats posed by changes in dissolved organic matter quality and composition as a result of climate change; left unresearched, there would be limited advance in the water sector's ability to efficiently treat drinking water, and in the IPCC's ability to incorporate the peatland water emissions into its assessments of climate change.
This Fellowship will explore an interdisciplinary, innovative solution to a focused water sector need to identify the composition of dissolved organic matter in order to conduct more efficient removal of dissolved organic matter at water treatment works. The project will undertake UK-wide field sampling, laboratory experiments and analysis of very large datasets that have been pooled together for the first time. The composition and processing of dissolved organic matter originating in peatland catchments will be investigated, to identify potential improvements to the treatment processes at water treatment works, to reduce the production of carcinogenic disinfection by-productions and costs, and to future-proof the industry to the effects of climate change on changing dissolved organic matter inputs to potable water thus providing both short-term and long-term economic benefits to the water industry.
This Fellowship will explore an interdisciplinary, innovative solution to a focused water sector need to identify the composition of dissolved organic matter in order to conduct more efficient removal of dissolved organic matter at water treatment works. The project will undertake UK-wide field sampling, laboratory experiments and analysis of very large datasets that have been pooled together for the first time. The composition and processing of dissolved organic matter originating in peatland catchments will be investigated, to identify potential improvements to the treatment processes at water treatment works, to reduce the production of carcinogenic disinfection by-productions and costs, and to future-proof the industry to the effects of climate change on changing dissolved organic matter inputs to potable water thus providing both short-term and long-term economic benefits to the water industry.
People |
ORCID iD |
Publications
Chapman P
(2022)
Carbon concentrations in natural and restoration pools in blanket peatlands
in Hydrological Processes
Moody C
(2021)
Towards understanding organic matter fluxes and reactivity in surface waters: Filtering impact on DOC and POC degradation
in Hydrological Processes
Holden J
(2018)
Water-level dynamics in natural and artificial pools in blanket peatlands
in Hydrological Processes
Boothroyd I
(2021)
Sulfur Constraints on the Carbon Cycle of a Blanket Bog Peatland
in Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences
Moody C
(2021)
Limited Influence of Nutrient Additions to the Transformation of Dissolved and Particulate Organic Matter From a Peatland Headwater
in Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences
Moody CS
(2020)
A comparison of methods for the extraction of dissolved organic matter from freshwaters.
in Water research
Worrall F
(2021)
Sulphur constraints on peatland carbon cycle
Description | Contributed to Briefing Notes for water companies. |
First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
Sector | Other |
Impact Types | Policy & public services |
Description | Discipline hopping for discovery science |
Amount | £9,798 (GBP) |
Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2023 |
End | 03/2023 |
Description | INTERACT Transnational Access |
Amount | € 7,127 (EUR) |
Organisation | European Commission H2020 |
Sector | Public |
Country | Belgium |
Start | 03/2019 |
End | 02/2020 |
Title | Water chemistry data and elemental content of dissolved organic matter extracted from freshwaters in the UK, 2018-19 |
Description | The data contains site characteristics (water body type, elevation, catchment area) and water chemistry data (pH, dissolved and particulate organic carbon concentrations (DOC and POC)). The composition of DOM extracted by different methods was analysed by elemental analysis; there are data for carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen content. The dataset result from an experiment to determine the reliability of various methods to extract dissolved organic matter (DOM) from freshwaters in the UK. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/3c77e7bf-78a0-433c-b260-b630e9a36cc0 |
Description | FREEDOM, Monteith project |
Organisation | UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Adding information on DOM composition to the research and decision support tool being designed by the project |
Collaborator Contribution | Designing the project, writing the proposal, winning the funding, coordinating the whole project. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2019 |