Isolation of dissolved organic matter from the suwannee river using reverse osmosis

Abstract

A portable reverse osmosis (RO) system was constructed and used to concentrate dissolved organic matter (DOM) from the Suwannee River in southeastern Georgia. Using this RO system, 150-180 1/h of river water could be processed with 90% recovery of DOM. After further cation exchange and lyophilization of the concentrated river water samples, large quantities of low-ash freeze-dried products were isolated. We highly recommend this RO method for concentration of DOM in fresh waters because (1) a very high percentage of DOM is recovered, which indicates minimal fractionation of the original sample; and (2) the process is quite rapid, which permits large quantities of DOM to be concentrated in a reasonable length of time. © 1990.