Removal of organic micropollutants in a drinking water treatment plant by powdered activated carbon followed by rapid sand filtration

Removal of organic micropollutants in a drinking water treatment plant by powdered activated carbon followed by rapid sand filtration

Ebrahimzadeh, S. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering; Politecnico di Milano)
Wols, Bas (KWR Water Research Institute)
Azzellino, Arianna (Politecnico di Milano)
Kramer, Franca (Dunea)
van der Hoek, J.P. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering)

2022

Powdered activated carbon (PAC) is a promising technology to reduce organic micropollutants (OMPs) in drinking water treatment plants and combined with biological treatment processes such as rapid sand filters (RSFs), has the potential to remove a broad range of OMPs during water treatment. However, the removal of OMPs by a combination of two treatments (PAC-RSF) is not fully understood. 49 OMPs were spiked in PAC followed by RSF pilot plant treatment and the effluent was measured after 1, 4 and 7 day(s). Also, in a separate experiment 29 OMPs (out of 49) were dosed into the RSF column to assess the removal of OMPs by just RSF. Statistical analyses were performed and the OMPs were classified according to their charge and hydrophobicity. The results showed that OMPs were removed at the highest percentage after the first 24 h of dosing. The highest removal was observed for the neutral and hydrophobic compounds (80.0%–99.5%). The removal of neutral and hydrophilic compounds varied (0.14%–98.5%) depending on the possibility of forming π-π interactions and hydrogen bonds. Electrostatic repulsion between anionic OMPs and negatively charged PAC led to a decrease in the removal of anionic compounds. In contrast, electrostatic attraction led to an increase in the removal of cationic OMPs. Regarding OMPs removal by RSF, some compounds were removed by the sand filter depending partly on their physical-chemical properties and more dominantly on their functional groups. By comparing the OMPs removal by PAC-RSF with RSF, it was possible to determine the contribution of biological processes in the sand filter in the removal of some OMPs.

Adsorption
Biodegradation
Drinking water
Organic micropollutants
Powdered activated carbon
Rapid sand filtration

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:47561e98-9222-42ed-8bd3-bcb1bff859bc

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwpe.2022.102792

2022-10-22

2214-7144

Journal of Water Process Engineering, 47, 1-13

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

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© 2022 S. Ebrahimzadeh, Bas Wols, Arianna Azzellino, Franca Kramer, J.P. van der Hoek