Adsorption and biodegradation of high explosives on granular activated carbon

Adsorption to granular activated carbon (GAC) is an effective method for removing high explosives (HE) compounds from water, but no permanent treatment is achieved. An off-line bioregeneration system, which combines adsorption and biodegradation, is being developed to reduce GAC usage rates and destroy RDX and HMX. Desorption is often the limiting mass transfer mechanism in bioregeneration systems; thus, two cosolvents, four surfactants, and two cyclodextrins were considered for improving desorption of RDX and HMX. In hatch experiments, about 3% of the adsorbed RDX was desorbed over Ii days using buffered water as the desorption fluid. In comparison, about 96% of the RDX was extracted from the GAC by acetonitrile. Ethanol and methanol were both effective in desorbing RDX and HMX. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), an anionic surfactant, desorbed 56.4% of the RDX at a concentration of 500 mg SDS/L. Cyclodextrins were marginally more effective than water. Continuous operation of a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) has effectively treated both contaminants. in an SBR that was operated with 4-day cycles for 72 days, mixed cultures consistently reduced RDX concentrations from 1 mg/L to non-detectable levels and HMX from 0.6 mg/L to 0.4 mg/L over each cycle. When removal from groundwater by adsorption is combined with enhanced desorption and subsequent biological treatment, the overall process is expected to effectively increase the GAC sen ice life and provide a permanent treatment method for RDX and HMX.