Supporting information

Operating Bicarbonate-form versus Chloride-form Ion Exchange Resins

without Regeneration for Natural Organic Matter Removal
Zhen Liua,b,*, Isabelle Papineaub, Madjid Mohsenic, Sigrid Peldszusd, Pierre R. Bérubée,

Sébastien Sauvéa and Benoit Barbeaub

a
Department of Chemistry, University of Montréal, Montréal, QC H2V 0B3, Canada

b
NSERC-Industrial Chair on Drinking Water, Department of Civil, Mining and Geological

Engineering, Polytechnique Montréal, Montréal, QC H3T 1J4, Canada

c
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of British Columbia,

Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada

d
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON

N2L 3G1, Canada

e
Department of Civil Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4,

Canada

Number of pages: 4

Number of figures: 4

Number of tables: 2

S1
 Bacterial biomass (µg C/ml resin)
0 5 10 15 20
0 0

Empty bed contact time (min)

Temperature: 25°C
10
BDOC: 0.25 mg C/L
Media depth (cm)

20 Dissolved oxygen: 5
7.66 mg O2/L
30
Limit of detection:
40 10
0.5 µg C/mL resin

50 BIEX-B
BIEX-C
60 15

Figure S1: Average heterotrophic biomass measured by 14C glucose respiration test as a
function of media depth and empty bed contact time (EBCT) of the bicarbonate-form BIEX
(BIEX-B) and the chloride-form BIEX (BIEX-C) filters at 10 000 BV. Error bars represent the
maximum and the minimum biomass value of triplicate analysis.

600
Disinfection by-product (µg/L)

median
500
25-75 %
400 max-min

300

200

100

0
HAA-UFC

HAA-UFC

HAA-UFC
THM-UFC

THM-UFC

THM-UFC

Raw water BIEX-C BIEX-B

Figure S2: Disinfection by-product concentrations (B) in raw water, chloride-form BIEX (BIEX-
C) and bicarbonate-form BIEX (BIEX-B) effluents from 5 300 to 11 000 bed volumes (i.e.,
secondary IX).

S2
 Primary Secondary
IX IX Exhaustion
100%
BP
75%
50%
HS
25%
Removal

0% BB

-25%
LMW a cids
-50%
-75% LMW n eutrals
-100%
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000
Bed volumes
Figure S3: Removals of natural organic matter (NOM) fractions in chloride-form BIEX (BIEX-C).

35
median
30 25-75 percentiles
Ammonia nitrogen (µg/L)

max-min
25

20

15

10

5
Detection limit
0
Raw water BIEX-C BIEX-B

Figure S4: Ammonia nitrogen concentration in raw water, chloride-form BIEX (BIEX-C) and
bicarbonate-form BIEX (BIEX-B) effluents from June to August (4 600 – 12 000 bed volumes).
Water temperature: 13-26 °C.

S3
Table S1: Raw water physicochemical characteristics (April. 2019 – January. 2020).
Average ±
Parameters standard Units
deviation
Temperature 14.2 ± 8.0 °C
pH 7.2 ± 0.3 -
Turbidity 13.3 ± 10.9 NTU
DOC 7.0 ± 0.7 mg C/L
UV254 0.24 ±0.03 cm-1
BDOC 0.42 ± 0.15 mg C/L
Chloride 6.6 ± 3.2 mg/L
Sulfate 5.6 ± 1.5 mg/L
Nitrate 0.9 ± 0.5 mg/L
Nitrite < 0.2 mg/L
Bromide < 0.1 mg/L
Alkalinity 27.7 ± 7.4 mg CaCO3/L
Hardness 27.0 mg CaCO3/L
Ammonia 20.1 ± 8.5 µg NH3-N/L

Table 2: Source water natural organic matter (NOM) fractions expressed in percentage of
dissolved organic carbon (DOC).
Concentration DOC
NOM fractions
(µg C/L) * Percentage
Dissolved organic carbon
7001 ± 605 100%
(DOC)
Biopolymers
199 ± 32 3%
(BP)
Humics
4852 ± 411 69%
(HS)
Building blocks
870 ± 41 13%
(BB)
Low molecular weight acids
191 ± 10 3%
(LMW acids)
Low molecular weight
neutrals 511 ± 62 7%
(LMW neutrals)
*Average ± standard deviation.

S4