• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.119-124
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• 2009

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of ionic strength and iron impregnation on the attachment of Enterococcus faecalis to granular activated carbon (GAC). Column experiments were performed to examine bacterial adhesion to coconutbased GAC (c-GAC), iron-impregnated c-GAC (fc-GAC), acid-washed c-GAC (a-GAC) and iron-impregnated a-GAC (fa-GAC) under two different solution (NaCl 1, 10 mM) conditions. Results showed that bacterial mass recovery in c-GAC decreased from 77.3 to 61.6% while in a-GAC it decreased from 71.6 to 32.3% with increasing ionic strength from 1 to 10 mM. This indicates that bacterial attachment to GAC can be enhanced with increasing ionic strength. Results also showed that the mass recoveries in fc-GAC were 62.6% (1 mM) and 53.3% (10 mM) while they were 50.8% (1 mM) and 16.9%(10 mM) in fa-GAC, which were lower than those in c-GAC and a-GAC. This demonstrates that bacterial adhesion to GAC can be enhanced through iron impregnation. This study provides information regarding the effects of ionic strength and iron impregnation on bacterial attachment to GAC. Furthermore, this study will advance our knowledge of bacterial removal in surface-modified granular media.