Effect of Influent Groundwater Quality on Adsorption of Low Concentrations of 1,2 Dichloroethane by Granular Activated Carbon

Abstract

AbstractThe overall goal of this research was to understand and quantify the impact of dissolved organic matter (DOM) quantity and character on the granular (GAC) adsorption of the carcinogenic volatile organic compound (cVOC) 1,2 dichloroethane (1,2 DCA). Three different groundwaters and one surface water were spiked with low concentrations of cVOCs (0.1–50 μg/L) and treated with GAC using bench-scale flow-through adsorbers with empty bed contact times (EBCTs) of 7.5 and 15 min. Little difference—less than 10%—was found in breakthrough behavior as a function of EBCT. Relative to results in clean water, DOM reduced GAC capacity for 1,2 DCA by almost 50%. Unlike other efforts with low- and sub-μg/L influent target compound concentrations, this effort did not find normalized target compound breakthrough to be independent of influent concentration. The lack of an EBCT effect and dependence on influent 1,2 DCA concentration were attributed to the DOM’s weak adsorbing character and its low concentrations. Reg...