Design and performance of powdered activated carbon/ultrafiltration systems

The use of powdered activated carbon in combination with ultrafiltration membranes is attracting increasing interest for the removal of organic micropollutants in drinking water treatment. The overall adsorption efficiency of this hybrid treatment process strongly depends on the reactor configuration and its operating conditions. Identification of the operating conditions yielding optimum carbon performance can be facilitated by the use of mathematical models describing the adsorption process. In this study, the effect of various design and operating parameters on the efficiency of the adsorption process is discussed using an adsorption model previously developed and verified by the authors. This discussion includes the effect of filtration time, membrane reactor volume, carbon dosing procedure, and the effect of dosing the carbon in reactors installed in series upstream of the membrane reactor.