The article presents research results of the introduction of powdery activated carbon to the existing technological system of the groundwater treatment stations in a laboratory, pilot plant and technical scale. The aim of the research was to reduce the content of organic compounds found in the treated water, which create toxic organic chlorine compounds (THM) after disinfection with chlorine. Nine types of powdery active carbons were tested in laboratory scale. The top two were selected for further study. Pilot plant scale research was carried out for the filter model using CWZ-30 and Norit Sa Super carbon. Reduction of the organic matter in relation to the existing content in the treated water reached about 30%. Research in technical scale using CWZ-30 carbon showed a lesser efficiency with respect to laboratory and pilot-plant scale studies. The organic matter decreased by 15%. Since filtration is the last process before the individual disinfection, an alternative solution is proposed, i.e. the second stage of filtration with a granular activated carbon bed, operating in combined sorption and biodegradation processes. The results of tests carried out in pilot scale were fully satisfactory with the effectiveness of 70–100%.

This work investigates adsorption of n-hexane on activated tyre pyrolysis char (ATPC) and granular activated carbon (GAC) as a reference material in a fixed-bed column. Microwave-assisted regeneration is also considered. The adsorbed amount of n-hexane on ATPC is in the range of 37–58 mg/g. Microwave-assisted desorption of ATPC samples enables the recovery of up to 95% of adsorbed n-hexane in this non-optimized microwave setup with the efficiency of microwave energy conversion into heat of only 5–6%. For the 50% breakthrough time, ATPC and GAC are able to purify the n-hexane gas volumes in the ranges of 20–90 and 935–1240 cm3/g, respectively. While adsorption kinetics is not satisfactorily described by pseudo-first and pseudo-second order kinetic models, it is very well reflected by a family of dynamic adsorption models, which are modelled with a single logistic function. Internal diffusion is likely the rate limiting step during adsorption on ATPC, while external and internal diffusion likely plays a role in adsorption to GAC. Although microwave-assisted regeneration is performed in a general purpose microwave reactor, both adsorbents show excellent performance and are very good candidates for the adsorption process. Preliminary results show that magnetite can further reduce microwave energy consumption.