Activated carbon has been a reliable technique used increasingly in water and wastewater treatment for the removal of relatively low-molecular-weight organic compounds, such as phenols. Phenol and its derivatives are the basic structural units of a wide variety of synthetic organic pollutants including many pesticides. Studies of the adsorptive properties of activated carbon have shown that presence of molecular oxygen in the aqueous phase promotes chemical transformation, such as oligomerization of the organic compounds on the carbon surface, thus decreasing the regeneration efficiency of activated carbon. Therefore, economic use has been a major concern in activated carbon usage. To solve this problem, this study proposes an approach to produce activated carbon for hampering oligomerization of  organic contaminants present as multi-solute and will eventually render the activated carbon more cost effective. Adsorption isotherms of single solute (2,4-dimethylphenol), binary solute (2-methylphenol/2,4-dimethylphenol) and ternary solute (phenol/2-methylphenol/2,4-dimethylphenol) were studied, using developed activated carbon and commercial activated carbon (Calgon F400). All single solute, binary solute and ternary solute adsorption on developed activated carbon showed that no impact of the presence of molecular oxygen on the adsorptive capacity, indicating that the developed activated carbon is very effective in hampering the oligomerization of phenolic compounds for multicomponent adsorption. These results were compared to a commercially produced activated carbon (Calgon F400) where significant oligomerization of these compounds were noticed.

Tailoring activation of bituminous coal for hampering oligomerization of multicomponent organic contaminants

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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