Impact of EfOM size on competition in activated carbon adsorption of organic micro-pollutants from treated wastewater.

The competitive impacts of different fractions of wastewater treatment plant effluent organic matter (EfOM) on organic micro-pollutant (OMP) adsorption were investigated. The fractionation was accomplished using separation by nanofiltration (NF). The waters resulting from NF were additionally treated to obtain the same dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations as the initial water. Using size exclusion chromatography (LC-OCD) it could be shown that the NF treatment resulted in an EfOM separation by size. Adsorption tests showed different competitive effects of the EfOM fractions with the OMP. While large EfOM compounds that were retained in NF demonstrated a reduced competition as compared to the raw water, the NF-permeating EfOM compounds showed an increased competition with the majority of the measured OMP. The effects of small size EfOM are particularly negative for OMP which are weak/moderate adsorbates. Adsorption analysis was carried out for the differently fractionized waters. The small sized EfOM contain better adsorbable compounds than the raw water while the large EfOM are less adsorbable. This explains the observed differences in the EfOM competitiveness. The equivalent background compound (EBC) model was applied to model competitive adsorption between OMP and EfOM and showed that the negative impacts of EfOM on OMP adsorption increase with decreasing size of the EfOM fractions. The results suggest that direct competition for adsorption sites on the internal surface of the activated carbon is more substantial than indirect competition due to pore access restriction by blockage. Another explication for reduced competition by large EfOM compounds could be the inability to enter and block the pores due to size exclusion.