Dynamic pesticide removal with activated carbon fibers

Rapid small-scale minicolumn tests were carried out to simulate the atrazin e adsorption in water phase with three palletized pitch-based activated car bon fibers (ACF) and one commercial granular activated carbon (GAC). Initia l atrazine solutions were prepared with pretreated ground water. Minicolumn tests showed that the performance of highly activated carbon fibers (surfa ce area of 1700 m(2)/g) is around 7 times better than the commercial GAC (w ith surface area at around 1100 m(2)/g), whereas carbon fibers with medium activation degree (surface area of 1500 m(2)/g) had a removal efficiency wo rse than the commercial carbon. The high removal efficiency of the highly a ctivated ACF is due to the wide-opened microstructure of the material, with an appreciable contribution of the low size mesopores, maintaining at thes e conditions a fast kinetic adsorption rate rather than a selective adsorbe nt for micropollutants vs. natural organic matter. (C) 2000 Elsevier Scienc e Ltd. All rights reserved