Evaluation of the treatability of various odor compounds by powdered activated carbon

Xin Huang; Qiang Lu; Haotian Hao; Qunshan Wei; Baoyou Shi; Jianwei Yu; Chunmiao Wang; Yan Wang

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2019.03.043

Evaluation of the treatability of various odor compounds by powdered activated carbon

Water Res. 2019 Jun 1:156:414-424. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2019.03.043. Epub 2019 Mar 24.

Authors

Xin Huang¹, Qiang Lu², Haotian Hao³, Qunshan Wei⁴, Baoyou Shi⁵, Jianwei Yu⁶, Chunmiao Wang⁷, Yan Wang⁸

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 18, Shuangqing Rd, Beijing, 100085, China. Electronic address: huangxin1212@163.com.
² Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 18, Shuangqing Rd, Beijing, 100085, China; College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China. Electronic address: qianglvmail@163.com.
³ Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 18, Shuangqing Rd, Beijing, 100085, China. Electronic address: tienhh@outlook.com.
⁴ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China. Electronic address: qswei@dhu.edu.cn.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 18, Shuangqing Rd, Beijing, 100085, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China. Electronic address: byshi@rcees.ac.cn.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 18, Shuangqing Rd, Beijing, 100085, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China. Electronic address: jwyu@rcees.ac.cn.
⁷ Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 18, Shuangqing Rd, Beijing, 100085, China. Electronic address: chunmiao_W@126.com.
⁸ Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 18, Shuangqing Rd, Beijing, 100085, China. Electronic address: 18252501781@163.com.

PMID: 30933699
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2019.03.043

Abstract

This study focused on evaluating the use of powdered activated carbon (PAC) adsorption for the treatability of various odor compounds with different structures. The adsorption performance of 14 odor compounds under various PAC dosages were fitted with two isotherm models (the Langmuir and Freundlich models) to evaluate the adsorption ability. The results indicated that the adsorption capacities estimated from isotherm model predictions were not suitable for the evaluation of treatability of the odor compound due to the neglection of odor threshold. A novel assessment method, through the comparison of the residual concentration at an inflection point (where the downward trend of the odor compound residual concentration and PAC dosage curve starts to flatten) and the corresponding threshold concentration, was employed. This assessment method considered the different thresholds of the various odor compounds and their absorbability by PAC as well as the cost. The results indicated that only the sulfur odor compounds, including dimethyl disulfide, diethyl disulfide and dimethyl trisulfide, were not suitable for PAC treatment. Other odor compounds could be treated by PAC with varying success. The correlations between the adsorption capacity and the treatability of various odor compounds and their properties, including the coefficient between octanol and water (LogK_w), solubility, molar refractivity (MR), dipole and volume, were also evaluated using the Pearson and Spearman correlation analysis. The results indicated that there were not significant correlations between the adsorption capacity and the properties of the odor compounds, while there were significant correlations between the treatability and LogK_w, MR and volume. The odor causing compound with a larger LogK_w, MR and volume was more suitable to be treated by PAC.

Keywords: Adsorbate properties; Adsorption; Odor compounds; Powdered activated carbon; Treatability.

MeSH terms

Adsorption
Charcoal*
Odorants
Powders
Water Purification*

Substances

Powders
Charcoal