Publisher's Synopsis
Powdered or granular activated carbon adsorption has been widely used in drinking water treatment plants primarily for taste, odor, and synthetic organic contaminant (SOC) removal. However, carbon adsorption has not been widely used for controlling DOM due to the low equilibrium capacities and slow adsorption kinetics. The main reason for these drawbacks is that the majority of commercial activated carbons have been developed primarily to remove small molecular weight hydrophobic SOCs from water. As a result, many commercial carbons do not provide feasible engineering solutions for removing large molecular weight and heterogeneous mixtures of DBP precursors. This research was undertaken to develop a fundamental understanding of tailoring activated carbons for DBP control.