Predicting Minimum Carbon Usage for PAC Adsorption of Trace Organic Contaminants from Natural Water
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 135, Issue 11
Abstract
Powdered activated carbon (PAC) is an excellent adsorbent for drinking water treatment of many trace organic contaminants. To evaluate and design a PAC adsorption process for a particular application, it is necessary to know the minimum (lowest economical) carbon (adsorbent) usage (MCU) defined thermodynamically. In this work, an explicit relationship is developed for predicting the MCU required for a desirable level of treatment of a target trace organic compound (TC). The adsorption processes considered are PAC slurry contactors idealized either as batch reactors, plug flow reactors, or continuous-flow stirred tank reactors. Comparing with the ones previously available in the literature, this newly developed relationship, as a predictive tool for practical uses as well, is more accurate because it does not need to assume that the MCU required for target TC removal can always reduce the competing background natural organic matter (NOM) to a level much less than the NOM initial/influent concentration. Applications of the relationship developed herein to PAC adsorption of typical trace organic contaminants in natural water are demonstrated with isotherm data from multiple literature sources.
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Acknowledgments
The writer would like to acknowledge the use of experimental data and isotherm parameters previously published by Dr. C. Campos, Dr. T. Gillogly, Dr. Y. Matsui, and their coworkers. The author would also like to thank the reviewers and the editor for their valuable comments.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 135 • Issue 11 • November 2009
Pages: 1199 - 1205
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Aug 4, 2008
Accepted: Mar 13, 2009
Published online: Mar 20, 2009
Published in print: Nov 2009
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