• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.619-627
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• 2004

Purposes of this study were to examine closely the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) which was a membrane fouling contaminant, to control detected EPS by powdered activated carbon (PAC) dosage etc. and to evaluate the possibility of practical reuse facility. With high removal efficiency of general pollutants, when the PAC is added to MBR, improvement of removal efficiency of $COD_{cr}$, and color was expected and treated wastewater can be reused. It was judged that the correlation between EPS and membrane fouling was very high. Carbohydrate and DNA in the EPS were judged to be cause of membrane fouling. If EPS could be controled, not only membrane fouling would be decreased but also operation time would be extended. In experiment of powdered activated carbon (PAC), characteristics of the best PAC for membrane fouling control were the particle size of $7{\mu}m$, lodine Number of 1,050, surface area of peat of $1,150m^2/g$. In lab test, operation time of MBR by PAC dosage of 200mg/gVSS was longer than one of MBR by without PAC dosage. Because EPS, especially carbohydrate and DNA, was controled successfully by PAC, membrane fouling in MBR could be decreased.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.585-589
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• 2010

In order to evaluate the performance of a powdered activated carbon (PAC) contactor, two water treatment plants (WTP) were selected as target sites. The result of tracer tests showed that the plug flow portion of a bisymmetry-type contactor (H WTP) was more than 70%. A maze-type contactor (C WTP) also had more than 70% of plug flow portion after intra-basin baffles were installed. According to the operating data of the target WTPs, there was no clear evidence that the addition of PAC contributed to the removal of organics. However, the results of jar tests, conducted with the raw water taken from the H WTP, proved that PAC could remove dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to some extent when the proper velocity gradient was maintained. It was estimated that the production rate, defined as the ratio of the operating flowrate to the design flowrate, of the C and H WTPs was only 27 and 50%, respectively. Because of these lower production rates, the mixing intensity in the contactor was much less than the designed value and, finally, the performance of the PAC contactor was much lower than what was expected.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.141-148
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• 2008

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of PAC(Powder Activated Carbon) retention time on stable operation of high concentration powered activated carbon(HCPAC-MBR) in the treatment of secondary domestic wastewater. The pilot scale HCPAC-MBR system was operated at two different SRTs, 25 days and 100 days. The main drawback of HCPAC-MBR system was the rapid increase of trans-membrane pressure. The increase rate of trans-membrane pressure was proportional to SRT value at constant flux. This result seemed to be caused by reduced amount of EPS adsorbed on the PAC in the reactor by decreasing the SRT of the PAC. The particle size of the PAC was also influenced by SRT. The PAC size was decreased as SRT was increased. The change of particle size could be one reason for the change of trans-membrane pressure. The pore volume in the cake-layer formed on the membrane surface became to be increased by reducing SRT, because the cake-layer was highly composed of the PAC. Therefore, increased pore volume might play a role to reduce the trans-membrane pressure. The removal rate of E260 and TOC was also inversely proportional to SRT value.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.403-410
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• 2006

The objective of this study was to evaluate the possibility of sedimentation basin omission when installed hybrid membrane filtration process in the field plant with the capacity of $500m^3/day$ for 11 months in the "G", water purification plant in Seoul. In order to evaluate the possibility of the sedimentation basin omission, we measured the change of DOC by coagulant dosage. Dosage of PAC(power activated carbon) 4mg/L and coagulant($AI_2O_3$ 10%) 1.67mg/L were compatible to meet the water quality. Also according to the experiment without settlement process, optimization G values were determined to be 300/s, 64/s, and 32/s at the mixing tank, the first flocculator and the second flocculator, respectively. The test was performed under the conditions PAC-coagulation-no settlement-MF. As a result, a dosage of 4.0mg/L as PAC and 0.86 to 1.22mg/L as $Al_2O_3$(10%) in the condition of flux of 62.5LMH were determined to keep TMP value less than $1.0kg_f/cm^2$.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.350-355
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• 2000

Powdered activated carbon(PAC) is widely used to control 2-MIB와 geosmin causing earthy-musty odor in water supplies. It was known that chlorine is one of the chemicals often come into contact with activated carbon. But activated carbon react with chlorine and surface oxide accumulate on carbon surface. As result, adsorption capacity of activated carbon is reduced. To investigate the effect of chlorine on the PAC's ability to adsorb 2-MIB and Geosmin, a series of experiments was carried out to show (1) the effect of aqueous chlorine doses on the ability of PAC to adsorb 2-MIB and Geosmin from Lake Heodong water. (2) the effect of delaying the chlorine addition after PAC had been added (to simulate the effect of using an alternative point of chlorine addition). As a result of experiment, as chlorine dose increased correspondingly decreased the capacity of activated carbon to adsorb 2-MIB and geosmin. Even though previously adsorbed 2-MIB and geosmin released, as result of the application of delaying the chlorine adding was more beneficial than simultaneous adding chlorine with PAC.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.208-214
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• 2004

Dissolved air flotation (DAF) is an effective solid/liquid separation process for low density floc particles such as algal, color-alum and clay-alum flocs produced from low turbidity water. The removal of taste and odor-causing organics (2-mthylisoboneol and geosmin) originating from algae in drinking water is a local and worldwide concern. Although DAF has been effectively applied for the removal of suspended solid, its application for the treatment of dissolved organic carbon is very limited. In this study, a new hybrid system consisting of adsorption and DAF processes was introduced for the simultaneous removal of algae and taste and odor-causing organics. Powdered activated carbon (PAC) was used as an adsorbent. In this proposed system, the major concern of eliminating the spent PAC from the system was also addressed. It was found that zeta potential of algae and PAC was increased with coagulant dosage, and the removal efficiency in DAF was also enhanced up to 90~95% under the given experimental conditions. Based on this study, the hybrid process was found to be a promising technology for the simultaneous removal of algae and dissolved organic pollutants.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.339-349
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• 2013

Biological treatment of RO concentrate from wastewater reuse process is known to be very difficult due to its high concentration of non-degradable organics and salt ions such as chloride, nitrate and phosphate. In this research, the treatment performance of MBR was examined using RO concentrate mixed with raw wastewater as the influent of MBR. Addition of PAC (powdered activated carbon) to MBR was also evaluated in order to enhance the treatment performance and stability. The performance of MBR for treating only RO concentrate decreased gradually although external carbon source was added. The average removal performance of MBR with and without PAC decreased from 99.1 %(98.8 %) to 94.9 %(91.4 %) for COD, 81.3 %(80.3 %) to 42.0 %(41.9 %) for T-N and 57.3(55.0 %) to 30.0 %(21.0 %) for T-P with the increase of RO concentrate mixing rate of 0 % to 20 % in the feed water. Addition of PAC showed positive effect on the performance of MBR for the removal of COD and phosphorus in case that the ratio of RO concentrate to feed water increased.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.175-180
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• 2009

This study was conducted to improve biological degradation efficiency of toluene as a model volatile organic compound (VOC) using yeast Candida tropicalis and to suggest an effective method for bioreactor operation. The yeast strain was immobilized with polyethylene glycol (PEG), alginate, and powdered activated carbon (PAC). The yeast-immobilized polymer media were used as fluidized materials in an airlift bioreactor. Polymer media without PAC were also made and operated in another airlift bioreactor. The two bioreactors showed toluene removal efficiencies ranging 80-96% at loading rates of $10-35 g/m^3-hr$, and the bioreactor containing the polymer media with PAC achieved higher removal efficiency. Protein contents in the liquid phase showed that the bioreactor using the yeast-immobilized polymer media with PAC had a higher rate of microbial growth initially than that without PAC. In addition, the microbial growth rate inside of the polymer media with PAC was five times higher than that without PAC. Consequently, the polymer media containing the yeast strain and PAC could enhance removal efficiencies for VOCs, and the immobilization method improve microbial activity and stability for a long-term operation of biological systems.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.8-13
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• 2016

This study investigated the removal of a radioactive cesium ($Cs^+$) in the water at the water treatment processes. Since cesium is mostly present as the $Cs^+$ ion state in water, it is not removed by sand filtration, and coagulation with polyaluminum chloride (PACl), powdered activated carbon (PAC) and mixture of PACl and PAC. However, it is known that the removal rate of cesium increases as the turbidity increases in raw water. As the turbidity was adjusted by 74 NTU and 103 NTU using the surrounding solids near G-water intake and yellow soils, removal rate of cesium was about 56% and 51%, respectively. In case of a GAC filtration with supernatants after jar-mixing/setting was conducted, 80% of cesium is approximately eliminated. The experimental results show that it is efficient to get rid of cesium when the turbidity of the raw water is more than 80 NTU. In case of a GAC filtration, about 60% of cesium is removed and it is considered by the effect of adsorption. Cesium is not eliminated by microfiltration membrane while about 75% of cesium is removed by reverse osmosis.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 2006

This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of a membrane bioreactor filled with high concentration of powdered activated carbon (HCPAC-MBR) to reduce DBPs at the drinking water treatment. The pilot system was installed after the rapid sand filtration process whose plant was the conventional treatment process. The removal efficiencies of DBPs were measured during pilot operation period of 2 years. HAA and THM removal rates could be maintained around 80~90% without any troubles and then tremendous reduction of HAA and THM reactivity were observed more than 52%. The average removal rate of HAA formation potential (FP) and THM formation potential (FP) were 70.5% and 67.6% respectively. It is clear that the PAC membrane bioreactor is highly applicable for advanced water treatment to control DBPs.