• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2020

An understanding of particle-particle interactions in filtration requires studying the detachment as well as the attachment of nanoparticles. Nanoparticles captured in a granular media filter can be released by changing the physicochemical factors. In this study, the detachment of captured silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in granular media filtration was examined under different ionic strengths, ion type, and the presence or absence of natural organic matter (NOM). Filtration velocity and ionic strength were chosen as the physical and chemical factors to cause the detachment. Increasing filtration velocity caused a negligible amount of AgNP detachment. On the other hand, lowering ionic strength showed different release amounts depending on the background ions, implying a population of loosely captured particles inside the filter bed. Overall detachment was affected by ionic strength and ion type, and to a lesser degree by NOM coating which resulted in slightly more detachment (in otherwise identical conditions) than in the absence of that coating, possibly by steric effects. The secondary energy minimum with Na ions was deeper and wider than with Ca ions, probably due to the lack of complexation with citrate and charge neutralization that would be caused by Ca ions. This result implies that the change in chemical force by reducing ionic strength of Na ions could significantly enhance the detachment compared to that caused by a change in physical force, due to a weak electrostatic deposition between nanoparticles and filter media. A modification of the 1-D filtration model to incorporate a detachment term showed good agreement with experimental data; estimating the detachment coefficients for that model suggested that the detachment rate could be similar regardless of the amount of previously captured AgNPs.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.35-51
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• 2017

The use of Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) and naturally occurring silica (Sand) as filtration media in water and waste water treatment systems is very common. While GAC offers the additional functionality of being an "adsorptive" filter for dissolved organics it is also more expensive. In this paper we present an experimental evaluation of the performance of a bed of GAC for colloid removal and compare the same with that from an equivalent bed of Sand. The experiments are performed in an "intermittent" manner over extended time, to "simulate" performance over the life of the filter bed. The experiments were continued till a significant drop in water flow rate through the bed was observed. A novel "deposition" and "detachment" rate based transient mathematical model is developed. It is observed that the data from the experiments can be explained by the above model, for different aqueous phase electrolyte concentrations. The model "parameters", namely the "deposition" and "detachment" rates are evaluated for the 2 filter media studied. The model suggests that the significantly better performance of GAC in colloid filtration is probably due to significantly lower detachment of colloids from the same. While the "deposition" rates are higher for GAC, the "detachment" rates are significantly lower, which makes GAC more effective than sand for colloid removal by over an order of magnitude.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.16-24
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• 2005

Mathematical model was developed to verify a sequential particle removal taking place in a granular media gravity filter. Consequential multi-layer filtration cycle model was applied to verify the fraction of filter effluent particles that are filter influent particles that were never removed as well as the fraction of filter effluent particles that were detached after deposition were performed through laboratory experiments. Three sizes of marker particles were injected ahead of the filter column as a pulse in the presence of four sizes of polystyrene particles that were used as a primary source of particles in the raw suspension to investigate particle attachment alone in contrast to net removal from attachment and detachment. Microscopic counting of filter effluent particles was assumed to reflect attachment. Experimental results indicated that particle detachment is significant beginning from the early phase of filtration. For each size of fluorescent microspheres at one filter depth, fluorescent microsphere removal increased with filter runtime to a maximum due to ripening. The detached fraction of effluent particles increased with particle size and filter depth. The presence of detached particles and the increasing fraction of detached particles in deeper bed were confirmed.