• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.727-736
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• 2006

Granular activated carbon (GAC) has been identified as a best available technology (BAT) by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) for removal disinfection by-product (DBP) precursors, such as dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON). Rapid small-scale column test (RSSCT) were used to investigate four types of carbon (F400, Norit1240, Norit40S, and Aquasorb1500) for their affinity to absorb natural organic matter (NOM). DOC, $UV_{254}$, and Total dissolved nitrogen (TON) concentrations were measured in the column effluent to track GAC breakthrough. DOC and $UV_{254}$ breakthrough occurred at around 3500 bed volumes (BVs) of operation for all GACs investigated. The $UV_{254}$ breakthrough curves showed 33% to 48% at 8000 BVs, when the DOC was 48% to 65%. All GACs showed greater removal in DOC than $UV_{254}$. The NORIT1240 GAC was determined to have the highest adsorption capacity for DOC and $UV_{254}$. The removal of nitrate (NOTN) had not broken through over BVs. The initial TON breakthrough curves were started around 50%, when the DOC breakthrough was only 10 % at 500 BVs. The curves were gradually increased after 3500 BVs and approximately 69% through 81% of TON breakthrough occurred at 8000 BVs. All of the GACs were able to remove TON, in the case of this investigation the majority of the TON was present as DON. Because nitrate nitrogen was seldom removed and ammonium nitrogen ($NH_3-N$) was not detected in the effluent from RSSCTs even though raw water. The carbon usage rate of DOC was from 2 to 6 times less than that of TON. The NORIT1240 GAC demonstrated the best performance in terms of DOC removal, while the F400 GAC was best in terms of TON removal. Excitation emission matrix(EEM) analysis was used to show that GAC adsorption successfully removed most of Humic-like DOC and Fulvic-like DOCs. However, soluble microbial product(SMP)-like DOC in the absence of raw water were detected in the NORIT40S and Aquasorb1500 GAC. The authors assumed that this results is due probably to the part of GAC in the RSSCT which was converted into biological activated carbon(BAC). To compare with organics removal by GAC according to preloading, the virgin GACs had readily accessible sites that were adsorbed DOC more rapidly than preloaded GACs, but the TDN removal had not showed differences between those GACs.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.419-424
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• 2007

According to increase of consumer's desire for clean tap water, advanced treatment processes include with membrane, ozone, and granular activated carbon(GAC) were introduced. In order to evaluate the effect of advanced treatment processes for residual chlorine decay and trihalomethane(THM) formation in water distribution system, dissolved organic matter(DOC) removal of each advanced treatment process was investigated. The residual chlorine decay and THM formation using bottle tests were also evaluated. $UV_{254}$ removal in all advanced treatment was better than DOC removal. Especially, DOC by ozone treated was removed as 4% in contrast with sand filtered water, but $UV_{254}$ was removed about 17%. This result might be due to convert from hydrophobic DOC to hydrophilic DOC by ozonation. Ozone/GAC process was most effective process for DOC removal. The residual chlorine decay constants in treated water by sand filtration, ozonation, GAC adsorption, and ozone/GAC processes were 0.0230, 0.0307, 0.0117 and 0.0098 $hr^{-1}$, respectively. The sand filtered water was produced 81.8 ${\mu}g/L$ of THM after 190 hours of reaction time, as the treated water by ozone, GAC, and Ozone/GAC was less produced 6.0, 26.2, 30.3% in contrast with sand filtered water, respectively. Consequently, the durability of residual chlorine and reduction of THM formation were improved by advanced treatment processes.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.252-259
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• 2018

An acidic, real metal-plating wastewater was treated by a fluidized bed membrane reactor introduced with granular activated carbon (GAC) as fluidized media. With GAC fluidization, there was no increase in suction pressure with time at each flux set-point applied. At neutral solution pH, much less fouling rate was observed than acidic pH under GAC fluidization. Higher solution pH resulted in the increase in particle size in metal-finishing wastewater, thus producing a less dense cake structure on membrane. More than 95% of chemical oxygen demand was observed from the fluidized bed membrane reactor under GAC fluidization. Total suspended solid concentration in membrane permeate was near zero. At the raw wastewater pH, no removal of copper and chromium by the fluidized bed membrane reactor was observed. As the pH was increased to 7.0, removal efficiency of copper and chromium was increased considerably to 99 and 94%, respectively. Regardless of solution pH tested, more than 95% of cyanide was removed possibly due to the strong adsorption of organic-cyanide complex on GAC in fluidized bed membrane reactor.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.18-23
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• 2001

Air pollutants, phenol was generated in case of thermal regeneration of used activated carbon loaded with phenol and because of this problem, removal process of phenol were studied. Electrolytic oxidation of samples, used S.company granular activated carbon (WS-GAC), used C.company granular activated carbon (WC-GAC) and used L.company granular activated carbon (WL-GAC) loaded with phenol carried out by potentiostatic method in this study. In case of experiment was to come into operation in condition of samples containing 100 mg/g phenol, supporting electrolyte was 1.0% sodium chloride solution, Ti-Ir (10$\times$10$\textrm{cm}^2$) electrode and electrode distance was 2 cm, current density was $1.25 A/dm^2$, Obtained from the results of electrolytic oxidation experiments were not detected residual phenol. And then we knew about reaction time of electrolytic oxidation, current density, concentration of supporting electrolyte and electrode and electrode distance were 60 minutes, 1.25 A/dm$^2$, 1.0%, 2 cm.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.199-208
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• 2024

In this paper, the adsorption removal characteristic for 10 species of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) was investigated using GAC and modified GAC (GAC-Cu). After modification with Cu(II), the amount of copper was to 1.93 and 4.73 mg/g for GAC and GAC-Cu, respectively. The total amount of 10 species of PFAS per specific area was obtained to 0.548 and 0.612 ng/m² for GAC and GAC-Cu, respectively. A series of batch test confirmed lower efficiency was observed with a smaller number of carbon chain length and the removal efficiency of PFCA (perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids) was lower than that of PFSA (perfluoroalkyl sulfonic acids) with the same carbon chain length. Regarding the pH effect, the adsorption capacity was decreased with increase of pH due to the increase of electrostatic repulsion. According to pseudo first and second order (PFO and PSO) kinetic models, while the values of equilibrium uptake and time did not show significant difference, a difference in uptake was observed between 24-48h. Furthermore, based on correlation analysis, Log K_ow and uptake have a high correlation with molecular weight (M.W.) and initial concentration, respectively. These results show that long-chain PFAS have higher removal efficiency due to their increased hydrophobicity.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.753-762
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• 2010

The objective of this study was to evaluate the backwashing frequency and method on the Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) in G WTP. A backwashing period was determined as 50 days and 60 days, respectively. Prior to Backwashing by head loss build, biomass concentration in effluent as constant and DO concentration was maintained more than 11.5 mg/L in GAC bed. Peak turbidity of backwashing water was 73.6~303 NTU. Mean turbidity of backwashing water at initial 9 minute of backwash operation was 50.7~82.8 NTU. After 30 minute backwashing operation, final turbidity reaches approximately 10 NTU. The frequency of backwashing and turbidity of backwashing water overtime were evaluated. At 20days of backwashing frequency, the peak turbidity was 73 NTU and 42 NTU respectively when 10% and 25% of expansion of GAC were applied. At 14 minute of backwashing time, it was observed that turbidity of 10% expansion of GAC was higher than that of 20% expansion.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.241-249
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• 2013

Ethanolamine (ETA) is widely used for alkalinization of water in steam cycles of nuclear power plants with pressurized water reactor. When ETA contained wastewater was released, it could increase COD and T-N. The treatment of the COD and T-N from ETA wastewater was investigated using the GAC as particle electrodes in three-dimensional electrode reactor (TDE). This study evaluated the effectiveness of GAC as particle electrode using different packing ratio at 300 V. The results showed that GAC-TDE could reduce ETA much more efficiently than ZVI-TDE at the mass ratio of GAC to insulator, 1:2. Additionally, The effect of applied electric potential to COD and T-N reduction was investigated. The results showed the high COD, T-N reduction and current efficiency at the low electric potential. Using the GAC-TDE will provide a better ETA reduction with reducing electrical potential dissipation.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.191-197
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• 2008

In this study, we used hybrid module that was composed of packing granular activated carbon (GAC) between module inside and outside of ceramic microfiltration membrane for advanced drinking water treatment. Instead of natural organic matters (NOM) and fine inorganic particles in natural water source, synthetic water was prepared with humic acid and kaolin. Packing fraction of GAC was changed from 0 to 24.05% to see effect of packing fraction. As a result, changing curves of resistance of membrane fouling ($R_f$) and permeate flux (J) during 3 h operation were almost overlapped independent of packing fraction of GAC. Treatment efficiencies of turbidity were very high above 99.46% at all packing fractions of GAC. And treatment efficiency of NOM, which was measured by $UV_{254}$ absorbance, was the highest value of 99.43% at packing fraction of 24.05%. Then, we operated the hybrid process during 13 h at packing fraction of 24.05%. As a result, J was rapidly dropped according to increase of membrane fouling within initial 1 h of operation, and almost constant after 3 h. And treatment efficiencies of turbidity and NOM were stable and high values of 99.52% and 96.63%, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.265-276
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• 2007

The primary objective of this study is to investigate the effect of media on the performance of biofilters. Two types of experiments were carried out in this study. The first type of experiment used a biofilter with the media composed of three different packing materials of compost, peatmoss and GAC(granular activated carbon), whereas the second type used a biofilter with the media composed of compost only. It was found from the two experiments that the biofilter composed of compost, peatmoss and GAC showed better performance than the one composed of compost only with the higher toluene removal efficiency, lower pressure drop, and more uniform media moisture content. In particular, no appreciable media compression occurred for the biofilter composed of compost, peatmoss and GAC, whereas significant media compression took place in the biofilter composed of compost only. As suggested by the other researchers, it is likely that GAC may be responsible for the higher toluene removal efficiency in the case of the biofilter composed of mixed media especially for the early stage of biofiltration due to its adsorption capability of toluene of such high concentration as 300 ppm. It was also regarded that GAC may playa major role in maintaining lower media pressure drop in the case of the mixed media than the media with compost only because of its mechanical strength resisting to the compression. Nonetheless, further refined experiments may need to draw more accurate conclusion. The results of the additional test run using the same mixed media showed that the biofilter system using the mixed media can be consistently operated for more than 100 days very stably despite sudden change in operating conditions of temperature and flow rate.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.205-212
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• 2008

This study aimed to investigate the biofilm formation, bacterial regrowth, and bacterial community structure in the granular-activated carbon (GAC) filter adsorbers (FAs) used in water treatment plants. In 2005 and 2006, raw water, settled water, GAC FA by depth, and filtered water were collected twice a year from water treatment plants (WTPs) B and S. The number of heterotrophic bacteria, including mesophilic and psychrophilic bacteria, in such collected waters was investigated along with the total number of coliforms therein. Heterotrophic bacteria were detected in most samples, mainly at the surface layers of the GAC FAs, and fewer such bacteria were found in the lower and bottom layers. An increase in the bacterial number, however, was observed in the samples from various depths of the GAC FAs in WTPs B and S compared with the surface layers. An increase in the bacterial number was also detected in the filtered water. This may indicate that there is a regrowth of the bacteria in the GAC FA. Considering, however, that heterotrophic bacteria were not found in the filtered water, it can be deduced that most bacteria are removed in the chlorination process. Coliforms were detected at the surface layer of the GAC FAs, but their regrowth was not observed. MicroLog systems were used to identify the bacteria community distribution. Eight genera and 14 species, including Pseudomonas spp., were detected in WTP B, and 8 genera and 9 species, including Aeromonas spp., in WTP S. Further studies are required to elucidate their role in the biofilms in water treatment processes.