EAPSI: Improving Drinking Water Filtration Systems Containing a Superfine Carbon

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Activated carbon is used in many drinking water treatment plants and home water filters for the removal of unwanted dissolved compounds. Superfine powdered activated carbon (S-PAC) is a new material that has a much smaller particle size than traditional activated carbon. Due of its small size, S-PAC can remove contaminants faster and with less mass, but since S-PAC particles are very small they must be removed by membrane filtration before treated water is distributed. This filtration is not easy because S-PAC can block the membrane pores, negatively affecting the filter performance. One way around this might be to create larger particles through aggregation of S-PAC before it reaches the membranes. This study will evaluate various S-PAC aggregation techniques within a ceramic membrane filtration module for enhancing filter performance. This research will be carried out in collaboration with Dr. Matsui, an expert in combining S-PAC with ceramic membranes for contaminant removal, at Hokkaido University in Japan.In previous work, S-PAC particles caused marked membrane pore blocking on 0.1 µm polymer-based membranes in dead-end filtration. Aggregation with chemical coagulation was shown to be successful at reducing the problem. This research will evaluate whether the results are similar with ceramic membranes instead of polymer ones. A ceramic membrane module will be operated with aggregated and disaggregated S-PAC to test the filter performance and compare with previous results. Additionally, the effects of natural organic matter (NOM) will be evaluated. Results of this study will contribute towards the understanding of S-PAC behavior and potential future applications for removal of trace contaminants in drinking water treatment. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.