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Stratification of Granular Activated Carbon Filters for Advanced Wastewater Treatment

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Abstract

Advanced wastewater treatment with granular activated carbon (GAC) is a promising option to reduce emissions of organic micropollutants (OMP) into the aquatic environment. Frequent back-washes of the GAC filters are required due to high particle concentration in the treated wastewater but lead to stratification. Differences in adsorption capacities of individual strata are not known. The present study aimed at investigating physical and chemical differences at different filter depths of a stratified GAC filter. Two different commercial products were stratified during repeated filter bed expansions and sectioned into vertical fractions. Bulk densities, grain size distributions and ash contents of the individual fractions differed significantly. Adsorption tests with pulverized GAC from different levels showed great vertical differences in adsorption properties. OMP removals determined in the upper part of a GAC filter therefore cannot be extrapolated downwards. Both physical and chemical vertical heterogeneities with regard to adsorption capacities and residence times at different filter depths should be considered in the filter design, in the monitoring of a GAC filter, and in the interpretation of the GAC filter performance. Good correlations between abatements of UV light absorption and OMP removals were found for the virgin GAC throughout the non-uniform filter.

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Acknowledgments

The investigations within the ASKURIS project (contract 02WRS1278A) and TestTools (02WES1368A) are supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the funding measure RiSKWa (Jekel et al. 2013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Water in Urban Areas, Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623, Berlin, Germany

    Aki S. Ruhl & Martin Jekel

  2. Chair of Water Quality Control, Technische Universität Berlin, Sekr. KF4, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623, Berlin, Germany

    Frederik Zietzschmann, Johannes Altmann, Felix Meinel & Martin Jekel

  3. Berliner Wasserbetriebe, Research and Development, Neue Jüdenstraße 1, 10179, Berlin, Germany

    Alexander Sperlich

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  1. Aki S. Ruhl
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  2. Frederik Zietzschmann
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  3. Johannes Altmann
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  4. Felix Meinel
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  5. Alexander Sperlich
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  6. Martin Jekel
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Correspondence to Aki S. Ruhl.

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Ruhl, A.S., Zietzschmann, F., Altmann, J. et al. Stratification of Granular Activated Carbon Filters for Advanced Wastewater Treatment. Water Air Soil Pollut 226, 384 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-015-2655-4

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