Application of activated carbon microparticles for the removal of BTEX, tetrachloroethene, metals, non-metals and organic dye from contaminated water samples
Abstract
In this work, commercially available micrometric activated carbon was employed as an adsor-bent to decontaminate groundwater affected by several pollutants, such as BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes), tetrachloroethylene (PCE) as well as toxic metal ions. The main goal was to assess the potential use of micrometric activated carbon as an environmen-tal remediation product meant to be injected in the subsurface, forming an adsorptive barrier that stops contamination plumes from spreading. It was shown that the activated carbon has a very high capacity for adsorbing BTEX and chlorinated compounds simultaneously in very high concentrations: carbon concentrations ranging from 0.5 g L-1 to 0.75 g L-1 were able to remove 100% of the contaminants in several instances, and removal of > 95% of the VOC was achieved in most of the experiments. The metal ions were only moderately adsorbed onto the carbon matrix, which suggests that other techniques might be needed for the removal of this kind of contaminant from groundwater. Additionally, some tests were performed with meth-ylene blue to assess the activated carbon’s capacity to adsorb charged organic molecules such as textile dyes, displaying once again very promising results.
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