What is the best method to control Bromate in process water?

Published on by in Technology

Is there any method to control the Bromate level in Process water?

Your suggestions much appreciated.

Taxonomy

16 Answers

  1. From the responses it seems that you are using ozone for disinfection of water for sale as mineral water and this process is generating bromates. There was a similar issue a few years ago in London where the local Coca-Cola subsidiary was basically doing the same to treat what I think was London mains water as a 'mineral' water. Heavy levels of ozonation resulted in bromate formation that exceeded the 10 ppb limit. Curiously the same process had been used for years to make the beverage without issue as apparently different standards apply to that.

    If it is only a question of disinfection then I would question the selection of the ozone process. Unless there is a need for oxidation of other contaminants I would go for UV for disinfection. If you are stuck with Ozone then the ways to limit the formtion of bromate are to control the ozone dose to the minimum required, to ensure that the contact time is carefully controlled and there is not a section where long contact times can be found. Also pH will affect the kinetics of bromate formation.

    It is possible to reduce bromate to bromide by dosing ferrous Fe2+ salts. However this is hardly suited to water intended for drinking.

     

  2. To summmarize: bromate can be present in purchased hypochlorite (not chlorine) and it can be produced during water treatment if bromide is present. Bromate is not produced in hypochlorite during storage like chlorate and perchlorate are. Ozone is very effective at producing bromate, but chlorination  is not, it only occurs in very low TOC water at warm temperatures and probably with copper catalysis. If TOC is present organobromine compounds like bromoform are produced. Bromate is regulated in in drinking water at 10 ppb, but that is not scientifically valid, because the body metabolizes bromate to bromide after ingestion. The animal studies at very high doses are not the appropriate basis for regulations and guidelines, because the animals were overdosed far beyond their ability to detoxify the bromate.

    2 Comments

    2. did not used hypochlorite in Water processing.

      Thanks for ur valued response.

  3. The control the Bromates in water by the spectrographic method with concentration of Bromates from 0.01 to 0.4 mg / dm3 are known.
    To reduce Bromates in water can be tested adsorption using sorbents with reducing properties.

    2 Comments

    1. I can send you method in Russian. Service ffrom pre-paid.

    2. Thanks Sir, let me share the spectrographic method.  

      1 Comment reply

      1. I can send you method in Russian. Service ffrom pre-paid.

  4. Most of the comments address valuable details that could support the elaboration of a solution for your problem. But as "each case is different", for the identification of a commercially viable and environmentally sustainable solution more information is requested. From our experience dealing with bromate related problems for this special issue a meticulous assessment - like we elaborated on high level recently - is the only way to obtain reliable answers.  www.petersconsulting.eu

  5. If we are speaking about drinking water, Bromates can be produced if in the raw water there are Bromides.

    Bromides can give Bromates if an oxidant enough strong is used, as Ozone or Hipochlorite. To avoid this reaction, it is possible to use Chlorine Dioxide as oxidant

    1 Comment

    1. we have not used Hypochlorite , only used Ozone as an disinfectant in Product. is there any mean to control Bromide ?

  6. Naveed,

    Depending upon your water analysis and what level of concentration you are starting with and what level of tail end you are trying to achieve.  If this water is coming from a fracking process, I take it the Bromide concentration is in range of 1 to 2 g/l. There are a number of electrocoagulation followed by a membrane or Fe resin or filter technologies you can adopt for removal of Bromate. Would you be able to share the water analysis and what the level of Bromate limit you are trying to achieve?

    1 Comment

    1. Sir, 

      it is Interesting to used electrocoagulation. our product is Natural Mineral water, kindly share with compatable with this. we ahve 30ppb & limit is >10ppb.

      1 Comment reply

      1. Dear Naveed,

        Where is this project located? We have a resin that from the technical point of view it can work, but wanted to know if you can do a pilot testing to confirm the design capacity.

  7. One thing to look out for is generated Bromates that can be produced from Bromides if you have a cavitation source in your system.  A cavitating pump can produce them for example.

    For removal I would suggest reverse osmosis.

    1 Comment

    1. Thanks Sir for reply,

      product is Natural Mineral water so we could not used RO.

  8. The "best" way to control Bromate is RO.  Activated Carbon could be considered depending onthe application.

    2 Comments

    2. Thanks Sir for reply,

      product is ​Natural Mineral ​water so we ​could not used ​RO.

  9. Are you using Hypo chlorite as disinfectant?Bromide will get oxidised to Bromate in the presence of Hypo with copper as the catalyst

    1 Comment

  10. If it is a process water and not drinking water, why is bromate a particular problem?  Process waters may contain bromate without being a particular problem unless they come into contact with food.  It is difficult to oxidise hypobromous acid to make it bromate because bromate is a higher oxidation state.  Hypochlorite may contain low levels of hypobromous acid but it is rare for it to break down and generate bromate.  The normal breakdown products of hypochlorite, when it breaks down on storage, are oxygen and sodium chloride.

     

    1 Comment

    1. No. Hypochlorite solution does not produce bromate. The bromate is there from the chloride electrolysis process if there is some bromide present, which there always is. The  disproportionation process in hypochlorite produces chlorate and perchlorate. Chloride is the oxidation/reduction product.

      1 Comment reply

      1. The point is the level.  The proportion of bromate is low compared to the level of hypochlorite.  The level of chlorate and perchlorate is also low compared to the level of sodium chloride, which occurs while the hypochlorite is stored over a period of weeks.  The measurable level of chloride increases.

  11. Can you provide your coordinates to discuss further. or reach me on qasim@peregrineuae.com 

  12. Ozone oxidation is more and more widely used in drinking water treatment. However, when bromide ions are contained in the water, bromate, a by-product harmful to the human body, is produced. The methods for removing bromate include adding activated carbon, ferrous ions, zero-valent iron and ultraviolet radiation. Among them, there are many researches on activated carbon, but after a period of time, the efficiency of removing bromate by activated carbon decreases, and it needs frequent regeneration and replacement, which will inevitably increase the cost of drinking water treatment.
    UV irradiation has a high energy consumption and high processing costs. Zero-valent iron, especially nano-zero-valent iron or iron-based composite filter media, has a rapid removal rate of bromate, and is a promising removal technology, but it is affected by factors such as DO and ions in water. . Therefore, it is still necessary to further study the existing removal technology in order to seek practical application of bromate removal technology.

    so , i think the UV and  iron powder you can try .

    i hope these can help you .

    1 Comment

    1. Thanks for your reply.

      Sir,

      our Product is Natural Mineral water, so we could not add or remove the mineral from water. kindly explain the DO  ions in water.

  13. MERCK has an photometric Analyzer to control the Bromate level. Best Regards Dieter

  14. Recently, the method of bio-adsorbent for removing bromide has been developed and using agricultural and fruit and vegetable processing waste materials as an innovative and auspicious technology.

    The following methods and techniques are used to remove bromide and bromate from waste water:

    1- Removal techniques of halides, bromide and iodide have been broadly classified into three categories, namely; membrane, electrochemical and adsorptive techniques. Reverse osmosis, Nano filtration and electro dialysis membrane techniques are reviewed. The electrochemical techniques discussed are electrolysis, capacitive deionization and membrane capacitive deionization. Studies on bromide and iodide removal using adsorptive techniques including; layered double hydroxides, impregnated activated carbons, carbon aerogels, ion exchange resins, aluminium coagulation and soils are also assessed. 

    2. For bromide removal using adsorptive techniques including; layered double hydroxides, impregnated activated carbons, carbon aerogels, ion exchange resins, aluminium coagulation and soils are also assessed. Halide removal techniques have been compared, and areas for future research have been identified.

    3-Electrochemical oxidation: solid graphite electrodes selectively oxidizes bromide to bromine in flow back water and produces water from a shale gas operation in South-western PA. The bromine can then be outgassed from the solution and recovered, as a process well understood in the bromine industry.

    https://www.researchgate.net/deref/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov%2Fpubmed%2F23726709

     

    https://www.researchgate.net/deref/http%3A%2F%2Fwww98.griffith.edu.au%2Fdspace%2Fbitstream%2Fhandle%2F10072%2F48261%2F79981_1.pdf%3Fsequence%3D1

     

     

     

     

  15. Bromate can come from the original hypochlorite solution (not chlorine gas) or it can be formed by oxidation processes during water treatment. Bromate does  not continue to form in hypochlorite like chlorate does.

    It would be necessary to know more about your process water and the oxidation processes before anyone can provide sensible advice on post treatment formation.

    You should also know that the current drinking water standards and guidelines  for bromate are not scientifically valid, and lower than necessary to protect health. . They are extrapolated from the  very high dose feeding studies from about 25 years ago. The risk assessors assume that effects at high doses can be extrapolated to low doses. They cannot be extrapolated because normal low doses (even higher than drinking water levels ) are metabolized mostly to bromide after ingestion so the human is not exposed to bromate in vivo, but just microgram amounts of  bromide.

    See Non-genotoxic Mechanisms Involved in Bromate-induced Cancer in Rats. R.J. Bull and Joseph Cotruvo, Journal AWWA Summary 105:12, pp 47-48, December 2013.

  16. Unless you are very unlucky you are unlikely to encounter bromate in the raw water. 

    It is generally formed as a by-product of disinfection and advanced oxidation processes. Whilst chlorine gas is free of it hypochlorite can contain significant chlorate and bromate, especially as older stock decays and if you are chlorinating to a high level such as in super and de-chlorination then the bromate level can exceed the 10 ug/l limit. The way to avoid this is to ensure that you use low bromide/bromate hypochlorite. The same applies where electrolytic hypochlorite is used and in this case you need to specify low bromide salt as a feedstock. 

    Ozonation is a major cause of bromate in waters with a bromide content and the way to limit production is to control the ozone dose carefully , limit the contact time so close down parallel contact tanks at lower flows and in extreme cases to pH adjust as it is slower at low pH.  

    UV peroxide and UV chlorine can also generate bromate and chlorate and so care is needed. I am currently working on a scheme where additional UV is needed on already chlorine 'disinfected' water and in that case I am having to be careful about the selection of the UV reactors to avoid applying too high a UV fluence at low flows and high UV transmissivities as the turndown range of UV systems is limited. The lamp technology also has an effect and low pressure lamps being near monochromatic at 254 nm are less liable to cause bromate than medium pressure which have a wider range of wavelengths. 

    1 Comment

    1. Sir ,

      Thanks for your response. we are using ozone in water .