I would like to ask what other properties of water (pH and such) shall be analyzed and evaluated to test the effectiveness of activated carbon from filtering the contaminants present in the water?
Drinking water specifications include, as a minimum: received and dry apparent density, Dean-stark moisture percent, particle size distribution, hardness or abrasion number and either iodine number or butane activity number.
Evaluation of Activated Carbon Performance
By Henry Nowicki, PhD, Wayne Schuliger, George Nowicki and Barbara Sherman
Temperature among others. Kindly check the article in the link below.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0254629915311911/pdf?md5=6776ff0eaf02a65928935ad48e83906f&pid=1-s2.0-S0254629915311911-main.pdf
@ Lowea, the important properties should be analysed are pH, temperature and density of water; the surface area and pore size distribution of activated carbon, the amount of oxygen and hydrogen make up in carbon source as well as the particle size and flow rate.
Lowea... Activated carbon, A.C., is an inert material with relatively high pore percentage that can interact (adsorb) me pollutants from air and water. To test the capacity of the A.C. we make a synthetic polluted water using a dye material usually methylene blue dissolved in water at very low concentration. The contaminated water (certain volume) is allowed to be in contact with certain amount of A.C. The process of color removal is usually aided by shaking for time interval 30-180 minutes. There will be a clear reduction in the blue color with time. The color can be tested by a colorimeter. The efficiency can then be calculated from the amount of the dye removed from water. ... Good luck.
Drinking water specifications include, as a minimum: received and dry apparent density, Dean-stark moisture percent, particle size distribution, hardness or abrasion number and either iodine number or butane activity number.
Evaluation of Activated Carbon Performance
By Henry Nowicki, PhD, Wayne Schuliger, George Nowicki and Barbara Sherman
Testing of Activated Carbon for Water and Non-volatile LNAPL Quantitative Determination in Porous Media under Laboratory Conditions
DOI: 10.17221/124/2014-SWR
Performance of activated carbon in water filters
Mehdi Mazar Atabaki and Jamaliah Idris
It depends on what the contaminants are; you wouold need pre- and post-treatment samples. Personally I like to do a fairly complete general chemistry analysis and, if applicable, organics, to see what may need removal to meet aesthetic or health-based guidelines.
There are many different types of activated carbon, and they are used for many different purposes, e.g., odour (chlorine, hydrogen sulfide), physical filtration of particles, some organic chemicals, etc. Other types of treatment may be needed for various inorganic chemicals.
As with any treatment system, proper operation, maintenance and monitoring are essential.
Also, in areas with radon-rich groundwaters, activated carbon filters may need special disposal procedures.
A couple of websites FYI:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK234593/
https://www.health.state.mn.us/communities/environment/hazardous/topics/gac.html
https://www.carbonblocktech.com/the-science-behind-activated-carbon-water-filters/
Check https://wcponline.com/2013/06/03/testing-tips-activated-carbon-users-part-1/
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