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Validating the Use of Lyophilized Natural Organic Matter as Background Material in GAC Rapid Small-Scale Column Tests
Citation:
Abulikemu, G., T. Speth, J. Vogt, M. Meyer, Y. Hong, AND J. Pressman. Validating the Use of Lyophilized Natural Organic Matter as Background Material in GAC Rapid Small-Scale Column Tests. Journal of Water Process Engineering. Elsevier B.V., Amsterdam, Netherlands, 47:102773, (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwpe.2022.102773
Impact/Purpose:
This study evaluated the use of lyophilized natural organic matter (NOM) as a standardized benchmark for testing the effectiveness of granular activated carbon (GAC). The results demonstrated nearly identical NOM breakthrough profiles. RSSCTs conducted with both FW and Recon were shown to simulate the full-scale contactor performance well, while similar RSSCTs with regenerated GAC yielded a slightly earlier breakthrough, possibly due to the changes in GAC characteristics during regeneration and grinding. This has important implications for the use of standardized NOM to assess GAC performance at drinking water utilities. This research will be of high interest to water utilities and practitioners in the field of drinking water.
Description:
Utilities often test the effectiveness of different granular activated carbons (GACs) to determine which is most advantageous for their system. For surface water systems in particular, the seasonal and annual variability of natural organic matter (NOM) in the source water makes it difficult to benchmark the effectiveness of GACs over multiple contract periods. This study produced stable, lyophilized NOM from the filtered water (FW), i.e., the influent to GAC contactors, which was then reconstituted (Recon) and tested against the FW itself in parallel rapid small-scale column tests (RSSCTs). The results demonstrated nearly identical NOM breakthrough profiles. RSSCTs conducted with both FW and Recon were shown to simulate the full-scale contactor performance well, while similar RSSCTs with regenerated GAC yielded a slightly earlier breakthrough, possibly due to the changes in GAC characteristics during regeneration and grinding. RSSCTs evaluating the removal of microcystin-LR (MC-LR) in the presence of background NOM contained in FW and Recon showed slightly different results, possibly due to the difference in chloride concentrations of these two waters. This work validates that reconstituted lyophilized NOM can be used as a source water surrogate for GAC evaluations when the constituent of interest is NOM, and potentially for other constituents depending upon the influence of additional inorganic constituents that were not evaluated as part of this study.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Validating the Use of Lyophilized Natural Organic Matter as Background Material in GAC Rapid Small-Scale Column Tests
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