• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.449-458
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• 2023

As an adsorption technology for dissolved organic matter, the adsorption capacity of granular activated carbon, GAC, can be applied, but activated carbon whose adsorption capacity is significantly reduced by use is inevitably replaced or regenerated. However, due to the economics of replacement cost, thermal regeneration method is used commercially, but high energy cost and loss of activated carbon occur under high temperature conditions above 800℃. In this study, the Sono-Fenton method, a multi-oxidation technology that combines Fenton oxidation and ultrasonic oxidation, was applied to improve the regeneration efficiency of spent GAC used to treat dissolved organic matter in combined sewer overflows (CSOs), and the regeneration efficiency of spent GAC by oxidant and ultrasonic frequency was investigated. In the applied Sono-Fenton treatment, the highest regeneration efficiency of 68.5% was obtained under the regeneration conditions of Fe²⁺ 10 mmol/L, H₂O₂ concentration 1,000 mmol/L, ultrasonic treatment time of 120 min, and ultrasonic frequency of 40 kHz. And similar efficiency was also obtained at 750 kHz, while ultrasonic waves of other frequencies had poor regeneration efficiency, and the magnitude of frequency and GAC regeneration efficiency did not show a linear relationship. In the case of continuous operation of the GAC adsorption tower with CSOs prepared by diluting raw sewage, about 700 hours of operation without regeneration was possible, and as a result of applying one Sono-Fenton treatment, 40-70% COD_cr removal efficiency was obtained during a total of 1,000 hours of GAC adsorption operation.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 2018

BACKGROUND: The mobile vortex wet scrubber was developed to remove the harmful chemicals from accidental releases. However, there was a disadvantage that it was limitedly used for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as toluene according to the physicochemical properties. This study compared the removal efficiencies of an improved mobile scrubber on toluene and ammonia by applying diverse adsorption and absorption methods. METHODS AND RESULTS: The removal efficiencies on harmful chemicals were examined using various adsorption and absorption methods of water vortex process (C), phosphoric acid-impregnated activated carbon adsorption (PCA), pH-controlled water (pH 2.5) vortex process absorption with sulfuric acid (SWA) after ammonia exposure, granular activated carbon adsorption (GCA), and activated carbon mat adsorption (CMA) after toluene exposure. As a result, the best removal efficiency was shown in the SWA for ammonia and GCA for toluene. Also, the SWA and GCA methods were compared with different concentration levels. In the case of ammonia exposure (5, 10 and 25%), there was no difference by concentration levels, and the concentration in the outlet gradually increased, with pH change from acid to base. In the case of toluene exposure (50, 75 and 100%), the outlet concentration was higher relative to the exposure concentration in the initial 10 min, but the outlet concentration was remained steady after 10 min. CONCLUSION: The newly improved mobile scrubber was also effective in removing VOCs through adsorption techniques (activated carbon, activated carbon fiber, carbon mat filter etc.), as well as removing acid-base harmful chemicals by neutralization reaction.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.281-294
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• 2012

Filtration using granular media such as quarried sand, anthracite and granular activated carbon is a well-known technique used in both water and wastewater treatment. A relatively new pre-filtration method called pebble matrix filtration (PMF) technology has been proved effective in treating high turbidity water during heavy rain periods that occur in many parts of the world. Sand and pebbles are the principal filter media used in PMF laboratory and pilot field trials conducted in the UK, Papua New Guinea and Serbia. However during first full-scale trials at a water treatment plant in Sri Lanka in 2008, problems were encountered in sourcing the required uniform size and shape of pebbles due to cost, scarcity and Government regulations on pebble dredging. As an alternative to pebbles, hand-made clay pebbles (balls) were fired in a kiln and their performance evaluated for the sustainability of the PMF system. These clay balls within a filter bed are subjected to stresses due to self-weight and overburden, therefore, it is important that clay balls should be able to withstand these stresses in water saturated conditions. In this paper, experimentally determined physical properties including compression failure load (Uniaxial Compressive Strength) and tensile strength at failure (theoretical) of hand-made clay balls are described. Hand-made clay balls fired between the kiln temperatures of $875^{\circ}C$ to $960^{\circ}C$ gave failure loads of between 3.0 kN and 7.1 kN. In another test when clay balls were fired to $1250^{\circ}C$ the failure load was 35.0 kN compared to natural Scottish cobbles with an average failure load of 29.5 kN. The uniaxial compressive strength of clay balls obtained by experiment has been presented in terms of the tensile yield stress of clay balls. Based on the effective stress principle in soil mechanics, a method for the estimation of maximum theoretical load on clay balls used as filter media is proposed and compared with experimental failure loads.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.13-21
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• 2006

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widespread soil contaminants and major environmental concerns. PAHs have extremely low water solubility and are strongly sorbed to soil. A potential technology for remediation of PAHcontaminated soils is a soil washing with surfactant solutions. While the use of surfactants significantly enhances the performance of soil remediation, operation costs are increased. Selective adsorption of PAHs by activated carbons is proposed to reuse the surfactants in the soil-washing process. The adsorption isotherms of pure chemicals (Triton X-100 and phenanthrene) onto three granular activated carbons were obtained. The selective adsorption of phenanthrene in mixed solution was examined at various concentrations of phenanthrene and Triton X-100. The selectivity results were discussed with pore size distribution of activated carbons and molecular sizes of phenanthrene and the Triton X-100 monomer. The selectivity for phenanthrene was much larger than 1 regardless of the particle size of activated carbons. The selective adsorption using activated carbons with proper pore size distribution would greatly reduce the material cost for the soil washing process by the reuse of the surfactants.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.224-230
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• 2007

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the change of molecular weight (MW) profiles in natural organic matter (NOM) through various treatment processes (coagulation, granular activated carbon (GAC), and ozonation) using high performance size exclusion chromatography based on ultraviolet absorbance and dissolved organic detection (HPSEC-UVA-DOC). In addition, relationships between MW profiles and disinfection by-production (DBP) formation were evaluated. Each treatment process results in significant different effects on NOM profiles. Coagulation is effective to remove high molecular weight NOM, while GAC is effective to remove low molecular weight NOM. Ozonation removes only a small portion of NOM, while it induces a significant reduction of UV absorbance due to breakdown of the aromatic groups. All treated waters are chlorinated, and chlorination DBPs such as trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) are measured under formation potential conditions. Both THM and HAA formation potentials were significantly reduced through the coagulation process. GAC was more effective to reduce THM formation compared to HAA formation reduction, while ozonation showed significant HAA reduction compared to THM reduction.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.176-182
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to investigate the heterogeneous catalytic ozonation of oxalic acid by manganese (Mn) doped-granular activated carbon (GAC). In order to observe the effect of the amount of Mn doped on GAC, catalysts were manufactured by varying the impregnated Mn concentration. In this paper, the following had labeled all sorts kinds of Mn-doped GAC were labeled with suitable names according to the amount (mM) of the concentration of dipping solution: They were each named as 'Mn20', 'Mn50', 'Mn100' and 'Mn200'. These experiments were performed in a batch reactor (0.5 L) and a semi-batch reactor (1 L) and Mn-free GAC was used as a blank catalyst. The ozone decay properties of each manufactured catalyst were firstly investigated to find out the reactivity between the aqueous ozone and the catalysts. Oxalic acid removal by catalytic ozonation was then performed to demonstrate the oxidative efficiencies of each catalyst.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.287-292
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• 2005

Transient behavior of biofilter/photo-catalytic reactor system was observed to eliminate both hydrogen sulfide and toluene from waste air at its four sampling ports. The biofilter was packed with a equivolume mixture of granular activated carbon(GAC) and compost as packing media on which Thiobacillus sp. IW and Burkholderia cepacia G4 were inoculated and were fixed. The biofilter/photo-catalytic reactor system was run for eight stages of operation under various operating conditions. As a result the removal efficiencies of hydrogen sulfide and toluene began to decrease from 100% after the inlet loads of hydrogen sulfide and toluene surpassed ca. 100 $S-g/m^{3}/h$ and $161g/m^{3}/h$, respectively, and were rapidly decreased to 60% after the inlet loads of hydrogen sulfide and toluene were increased to 200 $S-g/m^{3}/h$ and $644g/m^{3}/h$, respectively.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.65-72
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• 2013

Adsorption of melamine was examined using columns packed with granular activated carbon (GAC). Raw GAC was sieved with 20, 40, 60 and 80 mesh to determine the influence of adsorbent particle size on reaction and diffusion. The mass ratio of the adsorption capacity of GAC for melamine ranged from 9.19 to 11.06%, and adsorption rates increased with decreasing particle size within this range. Rate constants between 3.295 ~ 4.799 $min^{-1}$ were obtained using a pseudofirst-order equation that was used to determine adsorption kinetics. A surface diffusion model was adapted to take into account the unsteady-state equation of a spherical adsorbent by converting the surface concentration from a constant to a variable governed by a dispersion equation. The calculated values were fit with the experimental results by using the diffusion coefficients as regression parameters. The modified equation exhibited a more precise agreement with respect to the sum of the absolute error (SAE).

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.441-451
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• 2014

The flushing is important to maintain good water quality in water main. It is a technique of using water velocity to remove sediments in water distribution system. The variety of water quality problems can occur in a distribution system, so too can a variety of benefits be gained by system flushing. In order to effectively perform the flushing, the contaminants to be removed to set up and it can be solved, it is necessary to ensure the proper flow rate. In this study, the removal of contaminants present in the inner water pipe attached loose deposits such as fine particles of granular activated carbon, sand and iron corrosion product sought to derive flow rates. Thus, the constant observation of using pilot plant scale water distribution plant for the movement of floating characteristics of particles were assessed.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.95-104
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• 1997

The objectives of this study are to investigate the effect of media on the removal efficiency of nitrate-nitrogen and the biofilm thickness in the fluidized bed biofilm reactor(FBBR) used for the high rate denitrification of nitric acid wastewater. Granular activated carbon(GAC) of 1.274 mm diameter and sand of 0.455 mm diameter were used as the media in the FBBR of 0.05 m diameter and 1.5 m height. As the nitrate-nitrogen concentration of the influent was increased stepwise from 600 to 4800 mg/l, the nitrate- and nitrite-nitrogen concentration of the effluent, biofilm thickness and biofilm dry density were measured to study the effects of media on the denitrification efficiency. The biofilm thickness increased with the substrate loading rate, and the biofilm dry density decreased with the increase of the biofilm thickness. At the influent nitrate-nitrogen concentration of 2400 mg/l, the removal efficiency in the FBBR with GAC was 88%, while that in the FBBR with sand was 99.6%. The biofilm in the FBBR with GAC was so thick, 754.9 $\mu$m, as to increase the mass transfer resistance, compared to that, 143.7 $\mu$m, in the FBBR with sand. The maximum specific denitrification rate in the FBBR with GAC was 15.0 kg-N/m$^3\cdot$ day, while that in the FBBR with sand was 18.0 kg-N/m$^3\cdot$ day. The biomass concentration in the FBBR with sand exhibited the high value 37 kg/m$^3$.