Analysis of selected pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting compounds and their removal by granular activated carbon in drinking water treatment

Over the last decade, endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) and pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) have been detected in drinking water at very low levels, mostly ng/L concentrations, suggesting that these compounds resisted removal through water treatment processes. The primary objective of this research was to evaluate in detail the removal of representative EDCs and PhACs at environmentally relevant concentrations by granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorption.; Two PhACs (naproxen, carbamazepine) and one EDC (nonylphenol (NP)) were chosen for the adsorption studies.; Adsorptions of the selected target compounds were evaluated on two types of activated carbon (coal-based Calgon FiltrasorbRTM 400 (F400) and coconut shell-based PICACTIF TE (PICA) by first investigating their isotherms at environmentally relevant concentrations (equilibrium liquid phase concentration ranging from 10 to 1000 ng/L). The single-solute isotherm data determined for both carbons showed that the relative adsorbabilities of the three target compounds were not in agreement with expectations based on their log Kow values. Overall, in this low concentration range, carbamazepine was most easily removed, and NP was least adsorbable. The adsorption of naproxen was negatively influenced by its dissociation in water. Comparison of single-solute isotherms on F400 carbon for the target compounds to those for other selected conventional micropollutants showed that naproxen and carbamazepine have generally comparable isotherms to 2-methylisoborneol (MIB) and geosmin. The isotherm tests in a post-sedimentation (PS) water from a full-scale plant demonstrated that the presence of background natural organic matter (NOM) significantly reduced the adsorption of all three target compounds, among which.NP was the least impacted compound. Based on the quantification of the direct competition using the ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST) in combination with the equivalent background compound (EBC) approach, the minimum carbon usage rates (CURs) for removing 90% of the target compounds in PS water were calculated at two environmentally relevant concentrations (50 and 500 ng/L). This work confirmed that the percentage removal of the trace level target compound at a given carbon dosage was independent of the initial target compound concentration.; Isotherm experiments were conducted for the target compound on GACs preloaded with PS water for various time intervals (up to 16 weeks) at the Mannheim Water Treatment Plant (Region of Waterloo, ON, Canada). The results indicated that the adsorption of all target compounds were subject to significant negative impacts from preloading of NOM, albeit to different extents. Among the three target compounds, reduction in adsorption capacity for naproxen was most severe, followed by carbamazepine and then NP. The three target compounds followed quite different patterns of decrease in adsorption capacity with increasing preloading time, thus revealing different competitive mechanisms at work for the different compounds. For naproxen, the change in heterogeneity of the carbons due to preloading suggests that some pre-adsorbed NOM could not be replaced by naproxen. However, both direct competitive and pore blockage mechanisms could successfully explain the adsorption performance of naproxen and carbamazepine. The removal of NP even at prolonged preloading times could be explained by absorption or partitioning in the NOM matrix on the surface of, or inside the carbons.; The kinetic parameters for each target compound-virgin carbon pair were determined using the short fixed bed (SFB) approach based on the pore and surface diffusion model (PSDM). The SFB results and sensitivity analyses indicated that, under the very low influent concentration conditions, film diffusion (indexed as betaL) exerts a much greater effect on breakthrough profiles than internal diffusion. The SFB tests on preloaded GACs showed that mass transport of all the ta...