Abstract
The aim of the research project is the development and validation of fast and cost-effective methods for the assessment of the removal of organic compounds during drinking water treatment by activated carbon filtration. The methods that will be developed can be used both, for the assessment of single compounds from the viewpoint of water suppliers and for the assessment of the efficiency of the activated carbon filtration step. The handling of the test should be fast and easy and the experimental set-up should be managed without expensive and complicated technical components. Hence, the major preconditions for a cost-effective method, that can be used within every water laboratory, are fulfilled. The dependence of the results obtained by this method from all parameters that might have an impact has to be carefully studied in order to have a robust and reliable method. The evaluation of the data should be easy and traceable and should require no special knowledge. Therefore, the assessment of the adsorbability of a compound should be done on the bases of one parameter (e.g. the break-through time or volume). At the same time the method has to provide clear and definite information about the adsorption onto activated carbon under realistic conditions, especially at an environmentally relevant concentration level. Validation of the test procedure will be done by comparison with data sets from waterworks using activated carbon filtration.