Activated carbon plays an important role in the field of water treatment due to its specific pore structure, high specific surface area, and excellent adsorption performance. It can effectively remove organic matter, heavy metals, pigments, odorous substances, and trace pollutants from water, and is widely used in fields such as drinking water purification, industrial wastewater treatment, and deep sewage treatment.
In drinking water treatment, activated carbon is mainly used to adsorb trace pollutants such as disinfection by-products (such as trihalomethanes), pesticide residues, drugs, and personal care products (PPCPs). At the same time, it can significantly remove geosmin (GSM) and 2-methylisoborneol (2-MIB) that cause odors. In industrial wastewater treatment, activated carbon can effectively adsorb toxic and harmful substances such as dyes, phenols, and benzene derivatives, and is commonly used in industries such as printing and dyeing, petrochemicals, and pharmaceuticals. In addition, activated carbon can also achieve the removal of heavy metals by chelating with surface functional groups and heavy metal ions such as lead, cadmium, mercury, etc.
The application forms of activated carbon mainly include
* * powdered activated carbon (PAC) * *
* * granular activated carbon (GAC) * *
PAC is suitable for emergency dosing or short-term treatment, while GAC is commonly used in fixed bed filtration or biological activated carbon (BAC) processes, combined with biodegradation to improve treatment efficiency. In the future, the research and development of modified activated carbon, regeneration technology, and composite materials will further enhance their potential applications in water treatment.
