• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.28 no.6
• /
• pp.648-653
• /
• 2006

As an alternative for the traditional materials packed in biofilters treating gaseous VOCs, a novel packing material has been developed and tested. In the packing material(named as Hydrogel Bead, HB), pollutant-degrading microorganisms were immobilized in hydrogel consisted of alginate, polyvinyl alcohol(PVA), and powdered activated carbon. A closed-bottle study showed that the HB rapidly removed gaseous styrene without the losses of adsorption and biodegradation capacity. Biofilter column experiments using the HBs also demonstrated that greater than 95% of removal efficiencies were found at an inlet styrene loading rate of $245g/m^3/hr$, which was higher biofilter performance than other elimination capacity reported earlier. Furthermore, when the inlet styrene concentration increased stepwise, the adsorption played an important role in overall styrene removals. The absorbed styrene was found to be biodegraded in the following low inlet loading condition. Consequently, the new HB material is able to successfully minimize the drawbacks of activated carbon(necessity of regeneration) and biological processes(low removal capacity at dynamic loading conditions), and maximize the overall performance of biofilter systems treating VOCs.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.208-214
• /
• 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
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.350-355
• /
• 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 Korea Water Resources Association
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.221-229
• /
• 2002

For the efficient design of baffled Powdered activated carbon(PAC) contractor, which has been widely used in water treatment plant(WTP) against the algae-related odor problems, a CFD(computational fluid dynamics) program was applied. In order to verify the performance of FLOW-3D program, the previously reported results of tracer tests from a pilot-scale PAC contractor(working volume of 288 liters) were compared to those from FLOW 3D. The results of FLOW-3D simulation were very similar to those from tracer tests conducted with the Pilot-scale PAC contactor. On the other hand, the hydrodynamic characteristics of baffled contractor in the P-WTP were simulated by using FLOW-3D. Simulation results on the distribution of PAC particles showed that there are some stagnant parts in the back side of baffles in which PAC Particles are not present. These stagnant parts might decrease the adsorption capacity of PAC particles. When the baffles were changed to maze-type intra-basin baffling, PAC particles were evenly distributed and the amount of stagnant parts reduced. In conclusion, it is anticipated that FLOW-3D simulation could be a viab1e tool for analyzing the hydrodynamic characteristics of structures used in drinking water treatment plant.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.220-225
• /
• 2013

The adsorption characteristics of phenol by the powdered activated carbon (PAC) were investigated by series of batch experiments. The pseudo-second-order model described the adsorption kinetics adequately with correlation coefficients over 0.999, indicating chemical adsorption as the rate-limiting step. The kinetic rate constants were from 0.55 to 19.81 mg $mg^{-1}min^{-1}$. The adsorption isotherm followed the Langmuir isotherm, indicating the homogeneous mono-layer adsorption onto the surface of the adsorbent. The values of activation energy, enthalpy and entropy were 17.44 kJ $mol^{-1}$, -8.26 kJ $mol^{-1}$ and -18.94 J $mol^{-1}K^{-1}$, respectively. The Gibbs free energy was in the range of -2.89~-2.14 kJ $mol^{-1}$. The results show that the phenol adsorption is physical, spontaneous and exothermic reaction.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.8-13
• /
• 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 Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.217-229
• /
• 2000

Adsorption equilibrium experiments for the phenol on granular activated carbon(16~25 mesh) and powder activated carbon(325 mesh) were carried out at $25{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ and the results were expressed with Freundlich isotherm. Adsorption rate experiments were executed in batch adsorption system under the condition that can be neglecting mass transfer resistance at the external surface of the particle. The results were analysed with the Miller's method to evaluate the linear driving force(LDF) adsorption rate constant. Fixed bed adsorption experiments were performed by adopting different flow rates in the activated carbon-phenol system at $25{\pm}1^{\circ}C$. The theoretical breakthrough curves were estimated with the simple constant pattern solution. The adsorption rate constant of LDF model was not a fixed value but variable with adsorption amount. The experimental results were better agreed with the estimation of breakthrough curve using the variable adsorption rate constant than the results estimated using the average fixed adsorption rate constant.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.22 no.11
• /
• pp.2097-2104
• /
• 2000

Naturally occurring taste and odor problems include those produced by microorganism. notably algae and bacteria. The major compounds causing taste and odor are MIB and Geosmin which can cause earthy-musty at very low concentration 9ng/L and 4ng/L, respectively. Especially, the problem is very serious from summer to fall in source and finished water. It is well known that using PAC is one of the best technology to control these compounds in drinking water treatment. In this study, optimum dosage and dosing time of PAC were observed with the adsorption isotherm experiments in single and binary compounds. Also, the effect of natural organic matter(NOM) was investigated by using a natural water with JSW. The adsorption capacity of Geosmin was higher than MIB in both with NOM and without NOM. The adsorption capacity of Geosmin and MIB was 4 times lower with NOM than that of without NOM. which was caused by competition adsorption. When the initial concentration of Geosmin and MIB were 100ng/L in JSW, at least 4 hours of reaction time was needed to achieve 99% removal with 20mg/L of the PAC.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.91-99
• /
• 2007

It is well-known that the presence of NOM (natural organic matter) in water has a negative effect on removing taste and odor compounds by activated carbon adsorption. Therefore, various means such as enhanced coagulation are applied to reduce the NOM. The presence of taste & odor compounds in drinking water even parts per trillion, is enough to generate customer dissatisfaction. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate carbon usage rate (CUR) for conventional coagulation (CC) and enhanced coagulation (EC) in order to improve the efficiency of adsorption of taste and odor compounds. Also, Effect of CC and EC on molecular weight fraction and the early stage breakthrough of 2-MIB and Geosmin are evaluated. When the enhanced coagulation was adapted for pretreatment for activated carbon adsorption the operation period could be prolonged by 3.5~4 times. CUR for CC was about 2 times greater than CUR for EC and this means that EC has more adsorption capacity than CC. To analyze effect of EC and CC on breakthrough of 2-MIB quantitatively, adsorbed NOM mass was calculated based on unit mass of activated carbon. In the early stage breakthrough of 2-MIB, total adsorbed NOM was 23.72mg/g for CC and 34.56mg/g for EC. Therefore, it is shown that the early breakthrough term of 2-MIB and Geosmin was improved due to increased adsorbability. The low-molecular-weight NOM (500~2000Da) compounds were the most competitive, participating in direct competition with 2-MIB for adsorption site.

• 한국방재학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2008.02a
• /
• pp.413-416
• /
• 2008

Recently, the results of vital tissue test showed that nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) as a disinfection by-product (DBP), could be regarded as a carcinogen because a tumor was observed in organs. U.S.EPA indicated 0.7 ng/L as exposure concentration of NDMA based on a risk assessment target with a lifetime cancer risk of $10^{-6}$. Several recent studies have shown that UV oxidation could remove NDMA. However, UV oxidation is uneconomical and can reform NDMA after treating. In addition, the treatment mechanism of adsorption has not been founddue to the uncertainty of NDMA pathway. In addtion, NDMA has a radioisotope $^{14}C$-labeled which can be analyzed at low concentration of NDMA by Liquid Scintillation Counter (LSC). This study has investigated NDMA determination using LSC at an extremely low range from 1 to 100 ng/L and NDMA removal by powdered activated carbon (PAC) adsorption. For $^{14}C$-NDMA by LSC, the highest correlation over 99% between count number and NDMA concentrationwas obtained with possibility of $^{14}C$-NDMA concentration up to 1 ng/L. In the presence of PAC ranging from 50 to 10,000 mg/L, $^{14}C$-NDMA was removed from 18% to 97% for Sigma-Aldrich corporation (S-A co.) and from 9% to 93% by PAC for Daejung corporation (Dj co.). Hence it was found that the removal efficiency by PAC adsorption could vary depending on PAC types from different companies. For PAC adsorption capacity of $^{14}C$-NDMA using the Freundlich isotherm, $K_f$ and 1/n of PAC from S-A co. were $2.67\times10^{-3}$ ng/mg and 1.009, while those of PAC from Dj co. were $1.30\times10^{-3}$ ng/mg and 0.994, respectively. Thus, PAC from S-A co. showed twice higher adsorption capacity than Dj co.