title: Influence of activated carbon preloading by EfOM fractions from treated wastewater on adsorption of pharmaceutically active compounds.
abstract: In this study, the preloading effects of different fractions of wastewater effluent organic matter (EfOM) on the adsorption of trace-level pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) onto granular activated carbon (GAC) were investigated. A nanofiltration (NF) membrane was employed to separate the EfOM by size, and two GACs with distinct pore structures were chosen for comparison. The results showed that preloading with EfOM substantially decreased PhAC uptake of the GACs; however, comparable PhAC adsorption capacities were achieved on GACs preloaded by feed EfOM and the NF-permeating EfOM. This indicates that: (1) the NF-rejected, larger EfOM molecules with an expectation to block the PhAC adsorption pores exerted little impact on the adsorbability of PhACs; (2) the smaller EfOM molecules present in the NF permeate contributed mainly to the decrease in PhAC uptake, mostly due to site competition. Of the two examined GACs, the wide pore-size-distributed GAC was found to be more susceptible to EfOM preloading than the microporous GAC. Furthermore, among the fourteen investigated PhACs, the negatively charged hydrophilic PhACs were generally subjected to a greater EfOM preloading impact.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geoscience, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5048, 2600GA Delft, The Netherlands. Electronic address: j.hu-1@tudelft.nl.
authors.forename: Jingyi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geoscience, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5048, 2600GA Delft, The Netherlands. Electronic address: r.shang@tudelft.nl.
authors.forename: Ran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shang
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geoscience, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5048, 2600GA Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Bas
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Heijman
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geoscience, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5048, 2600GA Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Luuk
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rietveld
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D002606:Charcoal / Q000737:chemistry*; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D002606:Charcoal; D062065:Wastewater; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Effluent organic matter; Granular activated carbon; Pharmaceutically active compounds; Preloading; Site competition