In 1979 the National Academy of Science published the adsorption subcommittee report from of the Safe Drinking Water Committee of the Nation Research Council. The Chair of the subcommittee was Professor I.H. “Mel” Suffet. This landmark report, written in 1977, provided a literature review and a meta-analysis of drinking water use of granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorption. The results were reported at a special adsorption ACS symposium in 1978. One historic figure showed the equilibrium capacity of 21 organic contaminants over an equilibrium range of 8 orders of magnitude. The report covers six areas, five of which I propose to the update with insights from the last nearly forty years: 1) GAC adsorption efficiency, 2) microbial activity on GAC, 3) production of abiotic substances by GAC beds, 4) regeneration of GAC and 5) alternative adsorbents. The first area of the report assessed the impact of pretreatment on GAC performance and the impact of background organic matter and competitive adsorption by other specific organic compounds. The lack of a more fundamental understanding in these areas, and associated advances in application, still remain the barrier to more wide spread use of adsorbents. Recent advances in areas 2 and 5 have shown promise in advancing sustainable use of GAC and alternative adsorbents.<br/>

Granular activated carbon adsorption of specific organic compounds: A forty year retrospective of the 1979 National Academy of Science report

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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