Removal of micropollutants by fresh and colonized magnetic powdered activated carbon

Kim M Lompe; Sung Vo Duy; Sigrid Peldszus; Sébastien Sauvé; Benoit Barbeau

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.07.072

Removal of micropollutants by fresh and colonized magnetic powdered activated carbon

J Hazard Mater. 2018 Oct 15:360:349-355. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.07.072. Epub 2018 Jul 27.

Authors

Kim M Lompe¹, Sung Vo Duy², Sigrid Peldszus³, Sébastien Sauvé², Benoit Barbeau⁴

Affiliations

¹ NSERC Industrial Chair on Drinking Water, Department of Civil, Geological and Mining Engineering, Polytechnique Montréal, P.O. Box 6079, Downtown Station, Montreal, Qc, H3C 3A7, Canada. Electronic address: kim-maren.lompe@polymtl.ca.
² Department of Chemistry, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Qc, Canada.
³ NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Water Treatment, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo, On, Canada.
⁴ NSERC Industrial Chair on Drinking Water, Department of Civil, Geological and Mining Engineering, Polytechnique Montréal, P.O. Box 6079, Downtown Station, Montreal, Qc, H3C 3A7, Canada.

PMID: 30125752
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.07.072

Abstract

This study evaluated the adsorption capacity and rate constants for 9 micropollutants (MP) on fresh and aged magnetic powdered activated carbon (MPAC) as a magnetically separable alternative to conventional PAC for drinking water treatment. MPAC with mass fractions of 10%, 38% and 54% maghemite nanoparticles were compared to bare PAC and pure maghemite in batch adsorption experiments. Pure maghemite alone did not adsorb significant amounts of MP and when normalized to PAC content, no significant differences of MP adsorption between MPAC and PAC were observed. Freundlich constants K_F (normalized to PAC content) ranged between 2.3-37 μg/mg (L/μg)^1/n for all MP and adsorbents. Pseudo-second order rate constants for MP decreased with increasing maghemite content ranging between 0.2-2.7 mg/μg/min for bare PAC and 0.02-2.19 mg/μg/min for MPAC. Residual adsorption capacities of 90-days old colonized adsorbents were 10 times lower than for fresh adsorbent. At typical concentrations of 3.5 g colonized adsorbent/L found inside reactors, kinetics were still fast and removals of all MP except sulfamethoxazole exceeded 90% within 5 min.

Keywords: Bioreactor; Drinking water; IONP; Magnetic activated carbon; Micropollutants.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't