Title
Unraveling competition versus adsorbability of dissolved organic matter against organic micropollutants onto activated carbon
Author
Wang, Q. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering; Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences) 
Zietzschmann, F.E. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering; Berliner Wasserbetriebe)
Hofman-Caris, Roberta (KWR Water Cycle Research Institute)
Jiang, N. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering)
Schuster, Jonas (Hamburg University of Technology)
Wang, Zheng (Shanghai National Engineering Research Center of Urban Water Resources)
Yu, Jianwei (Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)
Yang, Min (Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)
Rietveld, L.C. (TU Delft Water Management)
Department
Water Management
Date
2022
Abstract
It was widely acknowledged that dissolved organic matter (DOM) in natural water has ubiquitous competitiveness against organic micropollutants (OMPs) during adsorption onto activated carbon. However, some (model) low molecular weight organics have been reported to adsorb onto activated carbon, but were not competitive against co-adsorbates. The objective of this study is to identify which adsorbable DOM fractions in natural water contribute to the DOM competitiveness, and what is the impact of the OMP adsorbability and initial OMP concentration on this competitiveness. We, therefore, disassociated the adsorption of DOM fractions and OMPs (carbamazepine, caffeine and sulfamethoxazole) using a two-stage adsorption procedure, removing various adsorbable DOM fractions with powdered activated carbon pretreatment and then unraveling the competitiveness against OMPs of the remaining DOM. Our results demonstrated that DOM competition was not ubiquitous for all adsorbable fractions in natural water, and ∼ 25% of the adsorbable DOM was not competitive. The poorly adsorbable DOM was shown to be a non-competitive co-adsorbate, and its complexation even elevated the adsorption capacity of one of the OMPs (carbamazepine). The amount of DOM competitors increased for weaker adsorbable OMPs, and at higher initial OMP concentrations. The variability in DOM competition, differentiated by DOM adsorbability, has advanced the understanding of DOM competition, from ubiquitous competition to variable roles (varying competitiveness/complementary adsorption) of differently adsorbable DOM fractions during OMP adsorption.
Subject
Activated carbon
Adsorbability
Adsorption isotherm
Competitive adsorption
Dissolved organic matter (DOM)
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:61bdb7ab-c737-4f3a-b60a-0ab6e9fd7fff
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2022.120942
Embargo date
2022-09-28
ISSN
1383-5866
Source
Separation and Purification Technology, 292
Bibliographical note
Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.
Part of collection
Institutional Repository
Document type
journal article
Rights
© 2022 Q. Wang, F.E. Zietzschmann, Roberta Hofman-Caris, N. Jiang, Jonas Schuster, Zheng Wang, Jianwei Yu, Min Yang, L.C. Rietveld