Study of a large scale powdered activated carbon pilot: Removals of a wide range of emerging and priority micropollutants from wastewater treatment plant effluents

The fresh PAC dose was identified as the most influencing operation parameter and is strongly correlated to performances. Charge and hydrophobicity of compounds have been recognized as crucial for the micropollutant adsorption on PAC, as well as the molecular weight. Finally, a PAC dose of 10 mg/L allows an average removal of 72-80% of the sum of the PhPHs in nominal WWTP configuration. The comparaison of the results with those from the scarce other studies tends to indicate that an extrapolation of them to different PAC processes and to other WWTPs could be possible and relevant, taking into account the differences of water quality from WWTP to WWTP.