This minimizes the physical damage to the AC particles. 13 months This is in contrast to the relatively high particle loading from a conventional system which has been shown to send almost 260 million particles per liter to the activated carbon treatment step. A case in point is a bottling plant in St. Louis that has processed almost several million gallons of water over the past seven years through an RO machine and then through the same charge of AC, never witnessing a chlorine breakthrough. And, the feed to the system contains 2.0 ppm chloramines, not simply a small amount of chlorine. Part of the improved performance of AC on chlorine compounds is related to the lower pH inherent to the membrane system product water.
Chlorine is more susceptible to reduction to chloride in more acidic conditions.
Had the same water supply been subjected to the chlorination processes of a conventional system, the THM levels would have a very strong potential of increasing significantly.