Equilibrium adsorption of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from water onto activated carbon

Journal Article · Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1984 · Environ. Sci. Technol.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/es00124a002· OSTI ID:6223904

Walters, R W; Luthy, R G

Adsorption isotherm data for 11 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) from water onto Filtrasorb 400 activated carbon at 25/sup 0/C have been generated by batch shake testing. An evaluation of Henry's law, Langmuir, BET, Freundlich, and Redlich-Peterson equations indicates that the Langmuir equation is most useful for representing the data. Fitting the data to two linearized forms of the Langmuir equation provides estimates of the capacity term q/sup 0/ and the energy term b which apply over different equilibrium concentration (C/sub e/) ranges. The products of the parameters bq/sup 0/ obtained by using the low C/sub e/ linear form of the Langmuir equation approximate Henry's law adsorption constants. These values range from 2390 (mg/g)/(mg/L) for naphthalene to 326,000 (mg/g)/(mg/L) for chrysene. The parameter q/sup 0/ obtained by using the high C/sub e/ linear form of the Langmuir equation reflects limiting adsorption capacity. These values range from 580 mg/g for naphthalene to 14.7 mg/g for benz(a)anthracene. Both log (q/sup 0/) and log (bq/sup 0/) correlate with log (C/sub s/) and log (K/sub ow/), making it possible to predict relative adsorption of PAH from these latter properties. The adsorption of PAH onto activated carbon is (1) much stronger than is adsorption of PAH onto soils, sediments, and suspended organic matter and (2) comparable to or greater than the adsorption of other hydrophobic organics onto activated carbon.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Maryland, College Park
• DOE Contract Number: FG22-80PC30246
• OSTI ID: 6223904
• Journal Information: Environ. Sci. Technol.; (United States), Vol. 18:6
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ACTIVATED CARBON
SORPTIVE PROPERTIES
POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
ADSORPTION
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
DATA ANALYSIS
EQUATIONS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
ISOTHERM
WATER
ADSORBENTS
AROMATICS
CARBON
DATA
ELEMENTS
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INFORMATION
NONMETALS
NUMERICAL DATA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
SORPTION
SURFACE PROPERTIES
520200* - Environment
Aquatic- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (-1989)