Adsorption and microbiological mechanisms for removal of natural organics in granular activated carbon columns

Abstract Performance data for GAC columns treating surface water are analyzed to determine the relative importance of physical adsorption and biological activity, with and without pre-ozonation. Kinetic and equilibrium adsorption parameters for the source water are used in the Homogeneous Surface Diffusion model to predict GAC performance over 83 weeks. The model underestimates removal of TOC for ozonated and unozonated streams by 46% and 28%, respectively, which is attributed to omission of biological removal in the model.