Equilibrium adsorption of fulvic acids on activated carbon and its dependance on preozonization of solutions

The impact of ozonization on the equilibrium adsorption of fulvic acids (FA) on activated carbon has been studied. The possibility of multicomponent approach to describe the adsorption equilibrium by using two hypothetical components: weakly and strongly adsorbable fractions of FA was examined. The ozone treatment was shown to equalize the ability of FA fractions to adsorption as compared with the unozonized solution. It was established that the variation of the free energy of adsorption of FA destruction products correlated with changes of the share of organic carbon, subjected to biological impact, in the total organic carbon. The efficiency prediction of the ozone treatment of solutions of natural organic compounds prior to their filtration through the biologically activated carbon can be expediently performed by determining the variation of the free energy of adsorption.