Impact of phosphate addition on PFAS treatment performance for drinking water.

Adding new unit operations to drinking water treatment systems requires consideration of not only efficacy for its design purpose but also costs, water quality characteristics, impact on overall regulatory compliance, and impact of other treatment unit operations. Here, pilot study results for ion exchange (IX) and granular activated carbon (GAC) are presented for a utility with both per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and volatile organic contaminant removal needs. Specifically, the impact of upstream air stripping and phosphate addition on PFAS treatment performance was evaluated. Modeling was used to fit the IX and GAC pilot data and predict performance under different scenarios. GAC performance was generally consistent for treating water before or after the air stripper, but the addition of phosphate prior to air-stripping resulted in a loss of 15%-25% capacity for some PFAS on IX media, demonstrating the need to consider the entire treatment train before implementing PFAS removal unit operations.

A rapid kinetic dye test to predict the adsorption of 2-methylisoborneol onto granular activated carbons and to identify the influence of pore volume distributions.

The authors have developed a kinetic dye test protocol that aims to predict the competitive adsorption of 2-methylisoborneol (MIB) to granular activated carbons (GACs). The kinetic dye test takes about two hours to perform, and produces a quantitative result, fitted to a model to yield an Intraparticle Diffusion Constant (IDC) during the earlier times of dye sorption. The dye xylenol orange was probed into six coconut-based GACs and five bituminous-based GACs that hosted varied pore distributions. Correlations between xylenol orange IDCs and breakthrough of MIB at 4 ppt in rapid small-scale column tests (RSSCTs) were found with R²s of 0.85 and 0.95 for coconut carbons that processed waters with total organic carbon (TOCs) of 1.9 and 2.2 ppm, respectively, and with an R² of 0.94 for bituminous carbons that processed waters with a TOC of 2.5 ppm. The author sought to study the influence of the pore sizes, which provide the adsorption sites and the diffusion conduits that are necessary for the removal of those compounds. For coconut carbons, a linear correlation was established between the xylenol orange IDCs and the volume of pores in the range of 23.4-31.8 Å widths (R² = 0.98). For bituminous carbons, best correlation was to pores ranging from 74 to 93 Å widths (R² = 0.94). The differences in adsorption between coconut carbons and bituminous carbons have been attributed to the inherently dissimilar graphene layering resulting from the parent materials and the activation processes. When fluorescein dye was employed in the kinetic dye tests, the correlations to RSSCT-MIB performance were not as high as when xylenol orange was used. Intriguingly, it was the same pore size ranges that exhibited the strongest correlation for MIB RSSCT's, xylenol orange kinetics, and fluoroscein kinetics. When methylene blue dye was used, sorption occurred so rapidly as to be out of the scope of the IDC model.

The role of mesopores in MTBE removal with granular activated carbon.

This activated carbon research appraised how pore size and empty-bed contact time influenced the removal of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) at part-per-billion (ppb) concentrations when MTBE was the sole organic impurity. The study compared six granular activated carbons (GACs) from three parent sources; these GACs contained a range of pore volume distributions and had uniform slurry pHs of 9.7-10.4 (i.e. the carbons' bulk surface chemistries were basic). Several of these activated carbons had been specifically tailored for enhanced sorption of trace organic compounds. In these tests, MTBE was spiked into deionized-distilled water (∼pH 7); MTBE loading was measured by isotherms and by rapid small-scale column tests (RSSCTs) that simulated full-scale empty-bed contact times of 7, 14, and 28 min. The results showed that both ultra-fine micropores and small-diameter mesopores were important for MTBE adsorption. Specifically, full MTBE loading during RSSCTs bore a strong correlation (R(2) = 0.94) to the product (mL/g × mL/g) of pore volume ≤4.06 Å wide and pore volume between ∼22 Å and ∼59 Å wide. This correlation was greater than for the product of any other pore volume combinations. Also, this product exhibited a stronger correlation than for just one or the other of these two pore ranges. This multiplicative relationship implied that both of these pore sizes were important for the optimum GAC performance of these six carbons (i.e. favorable mass transfer coupled with favorable sorption). The authors also compared MTBE mass loading during RSSCTs (µg MTBE/g GAC) to isotherm capacity (µg MTBE/g GAC). This RSSCT loading "efficiency" ranged from 28% to 96% for the six GACs; this efficiency correlated most strongly to pores that were 14-200 Å wide (R(2) = 0.94). This correlation indicated that only those carbons with a sufficient volume of 14-200 Å pores could adsorb MTBE to the extent that would be predicted from isotherm data.

A QSAR-like analysis of the adsorption of endocrine disrupting compounds, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products on modified activated carbons.

Rapid small-scale column tests (RSSCTs) examined the removal of 29 endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) and pharmaceutical/personal care products (PPCPs). The RSSCTs employed three lignite variants: HYDRODARCO 4000 (HD4000), steam-modified HD4000, and methane/steam-modified HD4000. RSSCTs used native Lake Mead, NV water spiked with 100-200 ppt each of 29 EDCs/PPCPs. For the steam and methane/steam variants, breakthrough occurred at 14,000-92,000 bed volumes (BV); and this was 3-4 times more bed volumes than for HD4000. Most EDC/PPCP bed life data were describable by a normalized quantitative structure-activity relationship (i.e. QSAR-like model) of the form: where TPV is the pore volume, rho(mc) is the apparent density, CV is the molecular volume, C(o) is the concentration, (8)chi(p) depicts the molecule's compactness, and FOSA is the molecule's hydrophobic surface area.