EAPSI: Improving Drinking Water Filtration Systems Containing a Superfine Carbon

活性炭被用于许多饮用水处理厂和家庭水过滤器，以去除不需要的溶解化合物。超细粉状活性炭（S-PAC）是一种比传统活性炭粒径小得多的新型材料。由于其体积小，S-PAC可以以更小的质量更快地去除污染物，但由于S-PAC颗粒非常小，因此在处理后的水分配之前必须通过膜过滤去除它们。这种过滤并不容易，因为S-PAC会堵塞膜孔，对过滤性能产生负面影响。解决这个问题的一种方法可能是在S-PAC到达膜之前通过其聚集产生更大的颗粒。本研究将评估陶瓷膜过滤模块内的各种S-PAC聚合技术，以提高过滤性能。这项研究将与日本北海道大学的松井博士合作进行，松井博士是将S-PAC与陶瓷膜结合去除污染物的专家。在之前的研究中，S-PAC颗粒在终端过滤中对0.1µm聚合物基膜造成明显的膜孔阻塞。用化学凝聚的方法成功地解决了这个问题。这项研究将评估陶瓷膜而不是聚合物膜的结果是否相似。陶瓷膜模块将与聚合和分解的S-PAC一起操作，以测试过滤器的性能并与先前的结果进行比较。此外，还将评估天然有机质（NOM）的影响。本研究的结果将有助于理解S-PAC的行为和潜在的未来应用在去除饮用水处理中的微量污染物。NSF EAPSI奖是与日本科学促进会合作资助的。

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.