Abstract:
Background inorganic substances are thought to disrupt the adsorption
process used in wastewater treatment systems. In this study, a lowstrength
synthetic wastewater was investigated for biodegradation and
adsorption onto granular activated carbon, with and without the presence
of background inorganic compounds. Overall, organic compounds in the
synthetic wastewater underwent slow biodegradation, but when a solution
was prepared with only one or two individual organic components present
in the wastewater, biodegradation ceased. This effect was noticed both in the presence and absence of inorganic compounds. The association theory
was found to describe the overall adsorption equilibrium of the system
better than the more commonly used Freundlich isotherm. The isotherm
patterns of the synthetic wastewater indicated that the dissolved inorganic
substances had unfavorable effects on the adsorption of dissolved organic
substances.
