Fate of persistent and mobile substances in drinking water treatment: A systematic comparison of treatment options

/mg DOC), whereby adsorption indicated slightly higher elimination. Overall, RO achieved the highest elimination, exceeding 80% removal for 96% of all PM candidates. In three common combined treatment sequences, 16 PM candidates remained below 50% elimination and were therefore identified as critical for drinking water treatment, among them six halomethanesulfonates and seven components of ionic liquids. For adsorption onto activated carbon, polarizability, logD and solubility showed strong correlations with PM candidate eliminations, whereas for RO, strong correlations were observed between PM candidate eliminations, and molar mass and polarizability. These correlations provide suitable and readily accessible molecular properties to feed predictive models for the assessment of PM candidate elimination.