Influence of surface chemistry and structure of activated carbon on adsorption of fulvic acids from water solution

The adsorption of fulvic acids (FA) from aqueous solutions on activated carbon (AC) with different characteristics of surface chemical state has been investigated. To characterize the adsorbability of FA with complex fractional composition, a method of estimation of modified Freundlich equation constants was employed, and “conventional component” was used to evaluate the change in Gibbs free adsorption energy. It has been shown that change in activated carbon surface energy in-homogeneity due to oxidation leads mainly to a decrease in the adsorption energy of fulvic acids and to an increase of the concentration range of the conventional portion of the low adsorbable fraction. Decrease in the adsorption energy of organic substrate may result in higher degree of spontaneous bioregeneration of activated carbon and hence in its longer life in the processes of FA solutions filtration.