AWWA JAW60138

The ability of granular activated carbons (GACs) to remove metal ions from wastewater, groundwater, and drinking water is considered secondary to their ability to remove organics. Yet, because no water source is free from potential contamination from heavy metals, there is growing interest in the versatility of a carbon to be able to remove two problems at once: organics and metal ions. The research in this article demonstrates that a carbon produced from renewable wood byproducts, oak chips, may be a competitive alternative to existing materials that can remove both heavy metal and organic contamination. Unlike coal and other commonly used materials, hardwood is cheap, renewable, and readily available. In this study, two oak chip-based carbon samples were produced and compared against eight commercially available metal-ion adsorbents to determine the relative efficacy of the oak chip carbons as a metal ion adsorbent in industrial wastewater treatment and residential water filters. In a side-by-side comparison, the authors illustrate that hardwood-based carbons perform well with reportedly good adsorption for metal ions. Because commercially-activated carbons generally do not adsorb metal ions effectively, the authors claim that hardwood-based acid-activated carbons could fill an important niche as carbons that can be used in metal ion remediation of water and wastewater.