Adsorption of Perfluorinated Compounds onto Activated Carbon and Activated Sludge
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 137, Issue 10
Abstract
The adsorption of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) onto powdered activated carbon (PAC) was investigated in the presence and absence of effluent organic matter (EfOM) at an environmentally relevant concentration range (). Adsorption of PFOS and PFOA to PAC fitted the Freundlich model well (), and adsorption capacity of PFOS () and PFOA () in the absence of EfOM was more than one order of magnitude higher than that in the presence of EfOM ( for PFOS, for PFOA), indicating that EfOM greatly reduces the adsorption capacity of PAC. Moreover, EfOM was characterized by ultrafiltration, and fractions of nominal molecular weights were obtained to investigate their effect on the PFOS and PFOA adsorption. The fraction of had greater effect on adsorption than the fraction of , indicating that the similar molecular size of target compounds was the major contributor to adsorption competition. Additionally, biosorption of PFOS and PFOA to activated sludge fitted the linear isotherm () within a concentration range of . On the basis of our data, the estimated partition coefficient, , was for PFOS and for PFOA, respectively, suggesting that PFOS and especially PFOA have a low tendency to partition onto sludge.
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Acknowledgments
The writers appreciate the financial support of JSPS-NUS Fund. (R-288-000-033-112/123).
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Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 137 • Issue 10 • October 2011
Pages: 945 - 951
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 3, 2010
Accepted: Apr 7, 2011
Published online: Sep 15, 2011
Published in print: Oct 1, 2011
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