ABSTRACT
Activated carbon and wastewater must be brought into contact under appropriate conditions for optimum utilization of the carbon's adsorptive capacity. Many process alternatives for the contacting are available. In order to design the optimum carbon adsorption system for a specific application, complete physical and chemical parameters of the stream to be treated must be provided. The adsorption system types may be categorized as follows: fixed bed contactors, typical downflow fixed bed carbon contactors, upflow fixed bed contactors, upflow expanded bed contactors, moving bed contactors and typical upflow packed or expanded pulse bed column design. Carbon adsorption systems can also be classified into the types, based on the carbon handling procedure to be utilized. They are throw away carbon systems, off-site reactivation and on-site reactivation. While the size of the adsorption system can be determined from isotherm data, it is most important that the final design be conducive to the process considered and existing plant criteria.
