9414676 Mathews This is an awards to support research, the objective of which is to utilize recent advances made in understanding of adsorption as a unit process for removal of organic chemicals from water and wastewater in improving the design of flow-through devices that utilize adsorption as the effective process. The investigator feels that to sharpen the adsorption wave-front as it moves through the adsorbing medium will be a significant step toward improving the efficiency of treatment devices, the effectiveness of which is based on use of adsorption as the operative environmental technology. He plans on evaluating granular activated carbon as the adsorption medium in reverse stratified tapered adsorbers that have variable area bed configurations, the packing arrangement of which is dependent on the direction of liquid flow through the adsorbing and support media. Adsorption is a unit process that has proven to be effective in removing organic materials from aqueous suspension and solution. Advances in fundamental understanding of the process provides the potential basis for significant improvements in engineering design of treatment devices and processes for improvement of the process performance. Results of this research are expected to improve the engineering design of environmental technologies and systems that utilize adsorption as the effective component of their operation. ***
