Compounds Resistant to Carbon Adsorption in Municipal Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

The results of a study of compounds in municipal wastewater that are resistant to carbon‐adsorption treatment are reported with emphasis on organic compounds.

Molecular weight distribution of dissolved organic carbon and dissolved organic halogen in advanced treated wastewaters

“…Ultrafiltration (UF) is used for separating the dissolved and colloidal organic matter present in water, soils, and sediments into discrete molecular weight fractions. Reported studies have been concerned with humic and fulvic acid concentrates obtained from surface water (1-8), seawater (9,10), soil and sediments (3,11,12), wastewater (8,(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22), and leachates of sanitary landfills (23). Only in a few investigations, molecular weight fractionation by UF was tested with solutions of model compounds (8,20,24).…”

“…Physicochemical water treatment processes change the molecular weight distribution (MWD) of dissolved organic compounds. Ozonation has been shown to degrade humics into smaller fragments (2,29,30), and activated-carbon adsorption has been found to preferentially remove organics that are not excluded from micropores (17,19,21,22). In contrast, inorganic solids such as iron oxyhydroxide (8), lime (30), -aluminum oxide (28), and clays (21) have been shown to preferentially adsorb the high molecular weight fractions.…”