Assessment of the ozonation impact on adsorption efficiency in surface water treatment

Organic substances in water, both of natural and synthetic origin, especially their share in water treatment by-products can pose a threat to drinkers. That is why adsorption, as a very effective process of dissolved organic compounds removal is commonly used in surface water treatment systems. For process design and optimization, mathematical models both mechanistic and statistics are created. The results of the investigation of granular activated carbon (GAC) bed adsorption in a pilot plant with a capacity of 3 m3/h have been presented. Two systems have been tested – without ozonation and with ozonation before GAC adsorption. The models of the kinetics of GAC adsorption capacity exhaustion, the model of minimal GAC bed depth (adsorption zone) for assumed process efficiency (C/CO), as well as the model of adsorption zone movement velocity to the bottom of GAC bed, have been created. For the state of adsorptive equilibrium, the first model enables the determination of the isotherm parameters of the Freundlich type, the two other models are used for the calculation of GAC bed run time for the certain bed depth and assumed efficiency. It has been shown that in this case (water pollution, GAC type, pre-treatment) ozonation plays a minor role.