Min Yang talks about drinking water safety [date: March 2, 20061] Source: china water resources news Author: China Water Network Xie Xiaohui [font: large, medium and small] Interview with Dr. Min Yang, director of the State Key Laboratory of Environmental Water Quality, Center for Ecological Environment Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Drinking water safety is an important issue related to national security, social stability and people's health. Under the double pressure of increasingly serious pollution of drinking water sources and rising drinking water standards, the water supply industry in China is facing unprecedented challenges. The State Key Laboratory of Environmental Water Quality is an important research center of drinking water safety guarantee technology in China. A group of outstanding scientists have gathered together to form a United and pragmatic research team on water supply technology, and have carried out all-round forward-looking research in water source protection, water purification technology and water quality safety management, and achieved remarkable achievements. Recently, China Water Network had the honor to interview the director of the laboratory and asked Mr. Yang to introduce the relevant research work of the laboratory. When I walked into Mr. Yang's office, the first thing I saw was a whole row of bookcases on the left and calligraphy and painting hanging on the wall, which showed elegance. In the interview, Teacher Yang gave a simple explanation on the drinking water safety issues that everyone cares about today, which benefited a lot. Ozone activated carbon technology is an internationally recognized and widely used advanced treatment technology for drinking water, and it is also an important object studied by Teacher Yang's research group for many years. Ozone-activated carbon combined technology can effectively remove organic matter, chromaticity and odor through the ingenious combination of selective chemical oxidation of ozone and biodegradation on activated carbon, and is the most powerful safety barrier for drinking water. However, one of the biggest problems in using ozone technology is the problem of producing bromate, a carcinogen. Bromic acid may be produced in the process of ozone oxidation when there is a certain concentration of bromine ion in water. Therefore, the control of bromate is a very important work. Although the latest water supply standard issued by the Ministry of Construction has increased the limit standard of bromate, many water plants have not fully understood this new index. In a water plant in Okinawa, Japan, in order to meet the standard of bromic acid, the ozone reaction device can only be operated at low load, and the ozone equipment cannot be used effectively. For our country, water plants in coastal areas need to pay close attention to the problem of bromic acid, because there are 60-70 mg/L bromine ions in seawater, and some bromine ions will flow back and penetrate into drinking water sources through seawater. In recent years, Mr. Yang's research group has been engaged in the research on the mechanism of bromic acid production and the corresponding control technology. In drinking water, various strange smells have been widely concerned. The odor in drinking water not only affects the quality of life, but also causes consumers to worry about the safety of drinking water. However, the substances that produce odor are all trace substances in water, such as dimethyl isothiazole and terrene produced by algae and actinomycetes, which can be felt in water as long as they are a few nanograms/liter, so the analysis and identification of these substances has always been a difficult problem. A highly sensitive analytical method was established in the water quality laboratory, and the distribution and generation law of dimethyl isothiazole and soil odor in some major water sources in China were investigated. The research and application of odor control technology were carried out in cooperation with some water plants. These odors can be removed by powdered activated carbon adsorption and ozone oxidation. Among them, adding powdered activated carbon is a low-cost and flexible deodorization technology, which has many applications in Japan. Teacher Yang's research group conducted in-depth research on the adsorption mechanism of activated carbon to target pollutants, which provided reliable scientific support for the screening and preparation process of activated carbon. However, in the investigation of water sources in various places, it was found that some odors were not caused by dimethyl isothiazole and soil odor. In order to study all kinds of malodorous substances systematically, the Sensory-GC instrument which can identify malodorous substances and make qualitative and quantitative analysis was introduced in the laboratory, and special personnel were sent to Taiwan Province Province to study the application technology of the instrument. The arsenic and fluorine content in many groundwater in China is very high, which seriously threatens the health of consumers. 1998 After returning to China as a winner of the Hundred Talents Program, Mr. Yang started the research on arsenic and fluoride removal. After years of unremitting efforts, he not only made remarkable progress in the mechanism of arsenic removal and fluoride removal, but also made fruitful achievements in the research and development of new adsorbents, and successfully carried out pilot research on the use of new arsenic removal adsorbents in the suburbs of Beijing, which provided strong technical support for thoroughly solving the problem of drinking water with high arsenic. As an important base for drinking water research in China, in addition to the above research, the water quality laboratory has undertaken many national and local scientific research projects in water source protection, water quality safety evaluation, high-efficiency coagulation technology, pipe network stability control technology and safety early warning technology. The achievements of these scientific research projects will also make important contributions to improving the level of water supply technology and water quality management in China and ensuring the safety of drinking water in China. In order to achieve this goal, the laboratory also actively carried out hardware construction, not only equipped with fully functional analytical instruments, but also established several sets of field and laboratory simulation equipment, which formed first-class scientific research conditions and laid a solid foundation for better scientific research. When talking about water supply safety, Teacher Yang mentioned that the drinking water industry is now transforming from meeting the requirements of water quantity to meeting the requirements of water quality, and the biggest problem is the lag of understanding. One of the main reasons is the lack of effective exchange, communication and cooperation mechanism between academia and water supply enterprises. In order to improve this situation, our laboratory has also made a lot of efforts in promoting exchanges and cooperation in Industry-University-Research in recent years, such as organizing cross-strait seminars held alternately between the two sides. At the same time, the laboratory has also established good cooperative relations with water supply companies in some big cities in China and carried out a lot of scientific research work. In the near future, the laboratory also wants to cooperate with some water companies and organize some technical training courses to make more contributions to improving the water supply technology in China. In addition, in order to have an overall understanding of the water quality of China, the laboratory recently launched a survey of major water sources in China, with the ultimate goal of establishing a national water quality database to provide scientific basis for drinking water safety in China. The day of the interview happens to be Friday, but Mr. Yang will go to Shenzhen on business in the evening. It is also common for him to travel on weekends. At the end of the interview, Teacher Yang said: "As a scientific researcher, the most important thing is not to pursue hot issues, but to calm down and do a good job in a down-to-earth manner. As an excellent environmental researcher, you need a pair of keen eyes to discover new environmental problems and find solutions to them. What I feel most now is a little tired, but I will be very pleased to see that my research results can make some contributions to solving environmental problems. " Postscript: After the Songhua River pollution incident, environmental problems and emergency measures have aroused widespread concern. The water quality laboratory participated in the emergency project initiated by the Ministry of Science and Technology, and was responsible for one of the topics related to nitrobenzene pollution assessment and its environmental behavior research.
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