• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.479-482
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• 2012

Membrane process has been one of the widely applied wastewater treatment options, especially in field. However, one of the tricky issues in the process is to treat concentrates generated from reverse osmosis (RO) system in a manner of saving cost with maximum efficiency for treating a wide range of contaminants. Stimulated with the challenging issues, we have conducted a series of experimental studies in the evaluation for removing organics and nutrients using activated carbon. Results indicated that while powdered activated carbon (PAC) efficiently removed organics and the extent of removal was proportional to the PAC dosage, little removal of nitrogen and phosphorus was observed despite increasing the PAC dose. Interestingly, applying PAC was superior in removing organics than using granular activated carbon (GAC). These results suggest smaller particle size with higher surface area could provide greater chemical reactivity in removing organics.