Quenching H2O2 Residuals After UV/ H2O2 Drinking Water Treatment Using Granular Activated Carbon

The ability of six types of granular activated carbon (GAC) to quench H2O2 was evaluated by bench-scale H2O2 decomposition kinetics tests and pilot-scale H2O2 breakthrough tests. Bench-scale studies showed that carbon ageing significantly reduced the performance of H2O2 quenching by the GAC, but that the greatest impacts occurred within the first 25 000 bed volumes of water treated, with performance tending to stabilize afterwards. Pilot-scale studies suggested that both H2O2 exposure and exposure to natural organic matter were important factors in GAC ageing, with exposure to oxygen also suspected of being important. A continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR)-in-series model was proposed for the prediction of H2O2 breakthrough in a GAC column.MAS