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Trace organic contaminant removal from drinking water using local char

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conference contribution
posted on 2018-02-12, 15:10 authored by Josh Kearns, Mai T. Anh, N.W. Reents, K.K. Shimabuku, R.B. Mahoney, R.S. Summers, D.R. Knappe
Chemical contamination of drinking water sources is a worldwide problem. However, few locally managed, sustainable, and low-cost on-site treatment technologies are available in rural and remote situations. Char filter-adsorbers have been used to treat drinking water for thousands of years and are still widely used today. Our laboratory studies have shown that chars derived from surplus agricultural and forestry biomass using low-cost, low-emission gasifier cookstoves and drum-ovens develop favorable sorption properties for uptake of prevalent organic contaminants such as 2,4-D herbicide, environmentally persistent pharmaceuticals sulfamethoxazole and warfarin, algal metabolite 2- methylisoborneol, and trihalomethane by-products resulting from chlorine disinfection. Based on these studies we present design recommendations for integrating char adsorbers into low-cost multi-barrier treatment trains for on-site water provision. We also present field observations and monitoring data from application of char adsorbers in Thailand and eastern Burma.

History

School

  • Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering

Research Unit

  • Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC)

Published in

WEDC Conference

Citation

KEARNS, J. ... et al, 2014. Trace organic contaminant removal from drinking water using local char. IN: Shaw, R.J., Anh, N.V. and Dang, T.H. (eds). Sustainable water and sanitation services for all in a fast changing world: Proceedings of the 37th WEDC International Conference, Hanoi, Vietnam, 15-19 September 2014, 6pp.

Publisher

© WEDC, Loughborough University

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2014

Notes

This is a conference paper.

Other identifier

WEDC_ID:21894

Language

  • en

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    WEDC 37th International Conference

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