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Journal of Applied Science and Engineering, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 69-78 (2020) DOI: 10.6180/jase.202003_23(1).

0009

Adsorption Isotherm of NaCl from Aqueous Solutions


onto Activated Carbon Cloth to Enhance
Membrane Filtration
Hisham A. Maddah
Department of Chemical Engineering, King Abdulaziz University,
Rabigh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract
Activated carbon filtration follows the same adsorption principle where adsorbent molecules
attach to adsorbate surface. Activated carbon cloth (ACC) was selected for sodium chloride (NaCl)
removal from water and it was designed as if the carbon filter was placed before a membrane element.
Investigated parameters included adsorption cycles, initial salt concentration, and applied electric
potential. A brackish water of a TDS between 1000–3600 mg/L was prepared synthetically. Collected
data were fitted to the Freundlich isotherm model and showed an expected linear relationship. It was
established that adsorption rate increases with increasing adsorbate initial concentration, treatment
cycles, and with applying an electric potential. Studied samples ACC-1, ACC-2, ACC-3, ACC-1E,
ACC-2E, and ACC-3E (E refers to an applied 1.2 V potential) showed accumulated rejections of
3.94%, 6.44%, 6.74%, 9.35%, 11.56% and 12.24%, respectively. Results implied that it is possible to
place ACC before membrane units in industrial and water treatment plants for treatment enhancement
and membrane protection from possible fouling.

Key Words: Activated Carbon, Membrane Filtration, Adsorption, Sodium Chloride

1. Introduction taminations. Industrial wastewater contains several con-


taminants like heavy metals, toxic organics, and other
The world demand for drinking water has signifi- dissolved solids that impact the water quality of either
cantly increased since the world’s population has tripled seawater and/or groundwater sources [3,4].
in the twentieth century – which is expected to increase Recently, extensive studies and research work have
by another 40–50% by 2050 [1]. Drinking water is any been devoted to membrane separation and adsorption
water that is purified to become clean enough for human processes for developing better separation and adsorp-
consumption with low immediate- or long-term risks [2]. tion performance. Membranes are considered as excel-
Seawater is rich in microorganisms, organics, and lent alternatives for wastewater treatment compared to
has a high level of total dissolved solids (TDS) that can other purification techniques [1,3,4]. A membrane sepa-
reach up to 40,000 ppm or even higher [1]. Moreover, rates substances through its pore using momentum force
many industries which require the use of water in their from pressure, temperature, concentration, and/or elec-
production processes, such as oil and paper industries, tric potential gradients [5]. Membranes have gained spe-
dump their wastewater into the sea or underground wa- cial attention and have been utilized for common appli-
ters, without proper treatment; as a result, impacting the cations which include manufacturing, medical, water
quality of seawater and brackish water from further con- treatment, and fuel cells [6-8]. The physical separation
technology of membranes is optimal for water and waste-
*Corresponding author. E-mail: hmaddah@kau.edu.sa water treatment as it was reported that RO membranes
70 Hisham A. Maddah

could successfully remove up to 98% of heavy metals (NaCl) removal from aqueous solution (e.g. water). In-
and 99.99% of NaCl [1,9,10]. vestigated parameters included the number of adsorption
Besides the great abilities of membranes for water cycles, initial salt concentration, and applied electric po-
and wastewater treatment, activated carbon filters are tential. Brackish water samples were synthesized in our
also widely used in various industries for the treatment lab with low TDS of 1000 mg/L, 2500 mg/L, and 3600
of water and wastewater. Activated carbon is specially mg/L. NaCl removal efficiency, of various identical
developed to remove impurities such as heavy metals. ACC discs, was experimentally evaluated with and with-
Activated carbon is a carbonaceous material with a huge out the presence of an applied electric potential. Water
surface area and highly developed porous structure mak- splitting (electrolysis or hydrolysis) to hydrogen gas and
ing it capable of adsorbing most of the undesired pollut- oxygen gas occurs at > 1.23 V; hence, to avoid ions dis-
ants and toxic chemicals from water and wastewater sociation and loss of water to the atmosphere, we have
streams [11-13]. selected a maximum voltage (applied potential) of 1.2 V
Integrating adsorption processes with membranes that would aid in the rejection of NaCl salts according to
allows us to achieve the highest treatment efficiency the EDL “electrosorption” theory (flow through charged
[14]. For example, integration of activated carbon cloth electrodes); and would ensure that electrolysis would not
(ACC) before a low-pressure commercial brackish water occur. ACC medium chamber was designed as if it was a
reverse osmosis (BWRO) Toray membrane such as filter placed before a membrane treatment process. Fre-
TM720L-400 or TM720L-440 will protect the RO mod- undlich (1906) isotherm model was utilized to analyze
ule from fouling issues and may increase the initial NaCl our results and identify the isotherm constants for the ad-
rejection to be more than 99.5% [10,14]. ACC filters can sorption of NaCl onto ACC [16].
potentially reduce biofouling issues and prevent biofilm
growth in RO membranes which will lead to better water 2. Activated Carbon Filtration
flux rates and much-improved membrane performance
[1,14]. Activated carbon filtration is effective in excluding
The adsorption process is an attractive and effective certain solvents, pesticides, organic chemicals, metals,
equilibrium separation process for the treatment of in- and toxins such as methylene chloride, trichloroethyl-
dustrial wastewaters containing colored dyes, heavy me- ene, benzene, chlorobenzenes, carbon tetrachloride, vi-
tals, and other inorganic and organic impurities. There nyl chloride, and lead found in wastewater. Contami-
are various commercial adsorbents for the treatment of nated water streams are passed through granular or block
wastewaters, but the most interesting adsorbent is acti- carbon material to remove pollutants by physical filtra-
vated carbon due to it is low cost, easy access, and high tion increasing the water quality. However, NaCl rejec-
adsorption performance [9]. The adsorption process as- tion by activated carbon is usually low and have to be in-
sociated with activated carbon occurs when adsorbent vestigated further as evaluated in this paper [14,17-20].
molecules (gas or liquid) attach to adsorbate surface (ac- According to Maddah et al. (2018) [21] ACC utilized in
tivated carbon). Theoretically, adsorption process involves CDI cells (following electrosorption mechanism) showed
three consecutive steps: (1) transport of macroparticles a salt removal efficiency of 12-25% [22-24]; while
with a size of more than 50 nm, (2) transport of micro- ACC/ZnO and ACC/TiO2 composites improved the re-
particles with size less than 2 nm and (3) sorption pro- jection up to 15-35% [22,23,25] and 40-50% [24,26]
cess. In water purification industries, activated carbon is due to the increased electrode surface area and improved
utilized as an adsorbate to treat water based on the de- electrode capacitance (charge storage) from the added
scribed adsorption theory in which sorption process in- metal-oxides (high dielectric constants of ZnO (40) [27]
volves physical attachment of organic materials onto ac- and TiO2 (~17-63) [28] improve the electrode ability to
tivated carbon surface [15]. store electric energy at lower voltage for enhanced ca-
This study reports the feasibility of employing ACC pacitance and treatment; as compared to activated car-
as a low-cost alternative adsorbent for sodium chloride bon (5-14) [29] and water (80); with a low capacitance
Adsorption Isotherm of NaCl from Aqueous Solutions onto Activated Carbon Cloth to Enhance Membrane Filtration 71

of 33.5 pF for distillate water [30]). surface area, which is then crushed to yield a granular or
Principally, there are two basic types of water filters a pulverized product [14,17-20].
which are particulate filters and adsorptive/reactive fil-
ters. The removal technique of contaminants differs in 3. Mathematical Models and Equations
both filter types. Particulate filters eliminate undesired
pollutants by size exclusion where adsorptive/reactive The adsorption equilibrium of NaCl was calculated
filters contain a material (separation medium) that either by using Eq. (1)
adsorbs or reacts with contaminants in water [14,17-20].
(C 0 - C e )V
Activated carbon filtration follows the same princi- qe = (1)
m
ple of any adsorptive/reactive material. Adsorbents like
activated carbons attract contaminants (adsorbate) from where C0 (mg/L) and Ce (mg/L) are the initial NaCl con-
water solution and hold them onto their surfaces. Table 1 centration and final NaCl concentration (after the equi-
shows numerous combined factors that enable activated librium time), respectively. V is the volume of the water
carbon materials to draw toxic molecules out of contami- solution (L) and m is the mass (g) of the adsorbents
nated water (adsorption process). However, once acti- which are the ACC discs.
vated carbon sites become saturated and filled, contami- Freundlich isotherm [16] was used to simulate and
nants can flow from the carbon back into the water solu- model the experimental data for NaCl adsorption and
tion. Thus, the saturation point should be observed to electrosorption onto ACC discs. Eq. (2) and Eq. (3) show
avoid backflow issues by reactivation or replacement of the non-linear and linear forms of the Freundlich iso-
activated carbon filters (adsorbents) [14,17-20]. therm model, respectively. Freundlich isotherm was uti-
The activated carbon filter is typically made of solid lized and selected among other isotherm models (e.g.
materials such as petroleum coke, bituminous coal, lig- Langmuir, BET, Tempkin, etc.) because of its simple lin-
nite, wood products, coconut shell, or peanut shells, all earized form in determining the system isotherm para-
of which are sources of carbon. A chosen solid materials meters. Also, the common Langmuir isotherm model has
(biomass) can be converted into activated carbon th- been tried for our system, but it did not work because of
rough a thermochemical carbonization process which in- its nature in explaining monolayer adsorption only. The
volves combustion and pyrolysis at high temperature Freundlich isotherm model is believed to explain adsorp-
(1200 °C) followed by char activation. The pyrolysis tion occurs in multilayered adsorbate like the case for
conversion process is applied to carbonize the biomass ACC (fibrous tangled structure).
materials into carbon-rich precursor in the absence of ox-
qe = Kf Ce1/n (2)
ygen. Thermochemical carbonization process allows us
to produce an activated carbon substance with many 1
log( q e ) = log( K f ) + log(C e ) (3)
small pores, depicting the presence of having a very large n

Table 1. Combined factors impacting the adsorption performance of activated carbons [14,17-20].
Characteristics of … Factors/effect
Activated carbon material Pore size, surface area, surface chemistry, and density;
Higher surface area, and density influence adsorption efficiency.
Chemical contaminant Particle size, solution hardness, the tendency of the chemical to leave water and
attraction ability of contaminant to carbon surface;
Hydrophobic compounds are more likely to be adsorbed. In multiple compounds
mixture, strong adsorbers will attach to the carbon in greater quantity than those with
weak adsorbing ability.
Operating conditions Temperature, pressure, contact time, water flowrate;
More contact time results in greater adsorption.
72 Hisham A. Maddah

where qe is the amount of adsorbed NaCl at equilibrium the six identical ACC filters, per water sample. Water
(in milligram of NaCl per gram of ACC disc, mg/g), Kf was pumped to the product tank (beaker) and passed
is Freundlich constant related to the adsorption capac- through the inverted filter medium to investigate the ad-
ity of adsorbent, Ce is the equilibrium concentration of sorption rate of NaCl onto the pre-cut activated carbon
adsorbate in water solution (mg/L), and (1/n) parameter discs. Figure 1 shows the experimental set-up and con-
is the indication of the tendency of the adsorbate to be figuration of the ACC system for NaCl removal.
adsorbed [16,31]. Since the water pump could not reach water at the
very bottom, a total volume of 150 mL only from the
4. Materials same water sample was treated three consecutive times
on the same activated carbon filter to calculate the accu-
A commercially activated carbon cloth sheet was mulated NaCl rejection (%) for the three filtration cycles
purchased (Deep Blue Professional ADB41002) to pre- of that filter. It should be noted that the treated 150 mL of
pare our adsorbent samples for analysis. Delivered acti- the first stage was combined with the untreated 150 mL
vated carbon sheet was cut into six identical activated in the feed tank, before proceeding to the next stage, and
carbon discs and used as they were without any pretreat- so on. Mixing freshwater with contaminated water would
ment. The six identical pre-cut ACC discs were named decrease the TDS of the feed water for further stages.
as the following: ACC-1, ACC-2, and ACC-3 for non- The same technique was done for the other five ACC
electrical experiments, and ACC-1E, ACC-2E, and ACC- discs in treating the synthesized brackish water samples.
3E for electrical experiments. Then, ACC discs were ACC-1, ACC-2, and ACC-3 discs were used to treat wa-
placed onto an inverted filter medium. Basic raw materi- ter with NaCl of 1000 mg/L, 2500 mg/L, and 3600 mg/L,
als for the experiment work included deionized (DI) wa- respectively, and without applied electric potential. The
ter and a 99% pure sodium chloride (NaCl) salt pur- same process was done for ACC-1E, ACC-2E, and ACC-
chased from Sigma-Aldrich, USA. There were other sec- 3E discs to treat similar water samples in the presence of
ondary materials which were purchased for our experi- an electric potential of 1.2 V. Adsorption times were be-
ment as the following: vinyl tubing, hydroponics water tween 5 to 10 minutes for the first filtration cycle only
pump, plastic feed tank, product tank (beaker), an in- (until water was able to pass through the ACC discs); and
verted filter medium cistern (designed and modified, less than a minute for the forthcoming cycles (cycles two
Figure 2) and a stainless-steel wire mesh. and three) of the same ACC filter. Mass of various pre-
Three different brackish water samples with a TDS cut ACC samples and the used averaged water initial
of 1000 mg/L, 2500 mg/L, and 3600 mg/L were prepared concentrations are reported in Table 2. The mean value
synthetically in our lab by mixing 300 mL of DI water of the dry weight ACC sample is approximately 4.74 g.
with various initial concentrations (grams) of 99% pure
NaCl.

5. Method and Experiment

The scope of the study is to evaluate the removal of


NaCl from the contaminated water by using the pre-
prepared ACC disc filters. The experimental work was
conducted with and without applying an electric poten-
tial onto the ACC discs for a comparison purpose.
Since the experiment was conducted in a continuous
mode, water samples were poured separately into the
feed tank (with a hydroponics pump inside); three ex- Figure 1. ACC system configuration with no electric poten-
periments were carried out for each ACC disc, out of tial applied (experimental set-up).
Adsorption Isotherm of NaCl from Aqueous Solutions onto Activated Carbon Cloth to Enhance Membrane Filtration 73

Table 2. Mass of various ACC samples with their used pressure. Further information on operating conditions
averaged water initial concentrations and other related parameters are shown in Table 3.
ACC sample Dry weight (g) C0 (ppm)*
ACC-1 4.652 1011 6. Results and Discussion
ACC-2 4.905 2506.6
ACC-3 4.712 3613.3 The removal of NaCl from the prepared brackish wa-
ACC-1E 4.680 1026.6 ter was carried out by adsorption onto ACC discs. Ad-
ACC-2E 4.574 2480
sorption at equilibrium was studied as a function of con-
ACC-3E 4.927 3586.6
centration. Selected experimental parameters were the
* Note that 1 ppm = 1 mg/L.
number of adsorption cycles, initial salt concentration,
Fabricated ACC filter and water medium are illustrated and applied electric potential. Obtained adsorption equi-
in Figure 2. librium data were fitted with the common Freundlich
Water salinity, in terms of TDS values, was mea- isotherm equation as shown in Figure 3. It was found that
sured for both feed water (initial concentration) and pro- the Freundlich model appears to fit the equilibrium data
duct water (equilibrium concentration). Experiment work accurately and linearly as estimated. Obtained Freund-
was held under normal room operating conditions with a lich isotherm constants for the averaged experiment val-
room temperature of 20 °C and under the atmospheric ues of ACC and ACC-E discs are shown in Table 4.
6.1 Effect of Number of Adsorption Cycles

Figure 2. (a) ACC disc filter; (b) Water medium: ACC reser- Figure 3. Adsorption and electrosorption of NaCl on ACC
voir between feed and product tanks. discs and their fit to Freundlich isotherm.

Table 3. Operating conditions and other experiment parameters for ACC system
# Parameter Value
1 Temperature 20 °C
2 Pressure 1 atm
3 Concentration 1000 – 3600 ppm
4 Electric potential 0 V or 1.2 V
5 Treated volume 150 mL
6 Total volume 300 mL
7 Treatment cycles 3
8 Contact time (adsorption) 5~10 min (Cycle 1)
< 1 min (Cycles 2, 3)
9 ACC surface area 500 – 1500 m2/g
10 ACC contact area 38.48 cm2
11 Downward gravity force* 0.294 N
12 Applied perpendicular pressure from holding water** 76.4 Pa
* Calculated from force = mass ´ gravity; where water capacity in the cistern is around 30 cm3.
** Applied pressure on ACC from the held water in the cistern; pressure = force / area.
74 Hisham A. Maddah

Table 4. Freundlich isotherm constants for sodium higher feed concentrations resulted in more rejection and
chloride (NaCl) adsorption onto ACC discs removal efficiency. Hence, there is a proportional rela-
Applied Isotherm constants tionship between initial adsorbate concentration and qu-
ACC category antity of salts being treated. This is more obvious in Fig-
voltage (V) Kf 1/n R2
ure 6 which indeed shows that there was an increase in
ACC* 0 0.01 1.41 0.9963
ACC-E** 1.2 0.026 1.22 0.9995
ACC adsorption capacity with an increase in initial ad-
sorbate concentration. In contrast with 1000 mg/L, ad-
* Averaged result of the three identical ACC samples:
sorption capacity increased approximately two-folds (no
ACC-1, ACC-2, and ACC-3.
** Averaged result of the three identical ACC samples: potential) to four-folds (1.2 V potential) for 3600 mg/L
ACC-1E, ACC-2E, and ACC-3E. concentration. Accumulated rejection efficiency of pre-
cut ACC samples was studied against various initial con-
Since three treatment cycles were carried out for centrations and potential as shown in Figure 7. A slight
each ACC and ACC-E studied samples, the cumulative increase in rejection efficiency was observed with an in-
adsorption efficiency increased with an increase in the crease in initial concentration. With no potential applied,
number of treatment cycles. It was observed that most of rejections of 3.94%, 6.44%, and 6.74% were experimen-
the salts were captured in the first cycle because ACC tally determined for ACC-1, ACC-2, and ACC-3, re-
pores were fresh and clean with no salt deposition such spectively. NaCl ions (adsorbate) are believed to be re-
that in further cycles. Figure 4 and Figure 5 demonstrate jected by size exclusion onto ACC adsorbents holding
the effect of the number of cycles on (C0-Ce) or rejections them onto their molecular structural surface via adsorp-
at different initial adsorbate concentrations (according to tive/reactive mechanisms (e.g. from electrostatic interac-
C0 as chosen in Table 2) without and with an applied tions with carbon or possible chemisorption from Na+ or
electric potential, respectively. The effect of initial con-
centrations and electric potential will be discussed in fur-
ther sections.

6.2 Effect of Initial Adsorbate Concentration


From Figure 4 and Figure 5, it was estimated that

Figure 6. Effect of various initial NaCl concentrations and


electric potentialon ACC disc salt-adsorption ca-
pacity.

Figure 4. Initial minus equilibrium adsorbates (NaCl): [C0-


Ce] with no electric potential applied.

Figure 5. Initial minus equilibrium adsorbates (NaCl): [C0- Figure 7. Accumulated rejection efficiency of NaCl for vari-
Ce] with an electric potential applied. ous initial concentrations and potential.
Adsorption Isotherm of NaCl from Aqueous Solutions onto Activated Carbon Cloth to Enhance Membrane Filtration 75

Cl– onto carbon arrays). Initial and equilibrium adsor- to the higher observed adsorption capacity when there
bate analysis (Figure 4 and Figure 5) indicate that at a was potential. An electric potential of 1.2 V increased
low initial concentration (ACC-1/1E; C0 » 1000 ppm), adsorption capacity by almost double compared to the no
there will be a slight decrease in the rejection perfor- potential scenario (Figure 6). Therefore, accumulated re-
mance over cycles. However, when the initial concentra- jections of NaCl in Figure 7 were much higher when an
tion increased (ACC-2/2E; C0 » 2500 ppm), [C0-Ce] con- electric potential was applied and rejections reached up
centration sharply decreased from 110 to 8 mg/L and 200 to 9.35%, 11.56%, and 12.24% for ACC-1E, ACC-2E,
to 30 mg/L, for ACC-2 and ACC-2E, respectively, sug- and ACC-3E, respectively.
gesting the deteriorated performance over repeated treat-
ment cycles using the same carbon cloth. Further in- 6.4 Surface Morphology and Topography
crease of the initial concentration (ACC-3/3E; C0 » 3600 After adsorption experiments were finished, mor-
ppm) enhanced the rejections over the three cycles where phologies and topographies of the ACC discs were in-
stage 3 adsorbate concentrations were almost compara- vestigated by a high magnification (50-500X) Indmu op-
ble to that of stage 1 under the same applied electric po- tical microscope. Each sample was observed separately
tential (1.2 V). The ideal case would show up if we have under the microscope to locate captured salt particles
three consecutive cycles giving us the same rejections within the ACC pores. Figures 8(A- F) show the carbon
(i.e. the same ACC shows un-tilted horizontal line con- fibers surface structure and adsorbed NaCl particles for
necting the three stage-points in the curve). ACC-1, ACC-1E, ACC-2, ACC-2E, ACC-3, and ACC-
3E. It can be noticed that there were more salt particles
6.3 Effect of Electric Potential adsorbed onto ACC-3E compared to ACC-1E and ACC-
Differences between initial and equilibrium adsor- 2E. In other words, ACC-E discs (with applied electric
bate concentrations were found to be higher when apply- potential) showed more salt deposition onto their sur-
ing electric potential (1.2 V); as shown in Figure 4 and faces. However, we had NaCl salts with different particle
Figure 5. Higher concentration differences were related size in ACC-1, ACC-2, and ACC-3. Applied voltage (1.2

Figure 8. ACC: [(A) ACC-1; (C) ACC-2; (E) ACC-3]; ACC-E: [(B) ACC-1E; (D) ACC-2E; (F) ACC-3E]; Subgraphs: (a) Sur-
face structure and topography; (b) Adsorbed NaCl particles onto ACC.
76 Hisham A. Maddah

V) increased the salt rejection because the electrosorp- sorption capacity. It was observed that the cumulative
tion phenomenon explained by the EDL theory; where adsorption efficiency increased with an increase in the
every electron transferred through the carbon anode/ number of treatment cycles (three cycles) and most of the
cathode (i.e. like flow-through electrode architecture for salts were captured in the first cycle. The rate of adsorp-
CDI systems), an ion (cation/anion) is removed from the tion on ACC discs was linearly proportional to NaCl ini-
saline water (this is the ideal case with unity charge effi- tial concentration and that the adsorption capacity in-
ciency) [32]. Charged carbon electrodes treat the flow- creased with increasing concentration. A slight increase
ing water from the enhanced rejection via an electro- in rejection efficiency occurred for higher initial adsor-
physical salt-adsorption mechanism [33]. Tangled car- bate concentrations; we believe that brackish water and/
bon fibers create cavities and pores in the carbon cloth or groundwater sources will not have any biological con-
that would reject and trap Na+ and Cl– ions in them ex- tents; therefore, utilization of ACC for the treatment of
plaining the possible physical rejection mechanism “size brackish water showed a slight increase in rejection with
exclusion” of NaCl salts by using carbon cloths. From an increase in the adsorbate (NaCl) concentration fol-
Pauling ionic radius reported in the literature [34-36], lowing the isotherm concept. The author used synthetic
Na+ and Cl– ionic radii are in the range of ~0.95-1.00 Å brackish water prepared in the lab with only NaCl salts
and ~1.75-1.82 Å, respectively. This indicates that the for reliable results. For no potential scenario, accumu-
required pore size (or MWCO) for the removal of NaCl lated rejections of 3.94%, 6.44%, and 6.74% were exper-
ions should be equal or less than ~10 nm (MWCO ~220 imentally determined for ACC-1, ACC-2, and ACC-3,
kDa; from MWCO (Da) = 220 * Pore (nm)3 [37]). Mor- respectively. However, it was possible to achieve higher
phology of the carbon cloth in Figures 8(A-F), for (b) il- performance with an applied electric potential of 1.2 V
lustrations, show multiple voids and cavities with a trap and rejections reached up to 9.35%, 11.56%, and 12.24%
size that could reach less than 10 nm (within the carbon for ACC-1E, ACC-2E, and ACC-3E, respectively. Re-
fibers); thus, some of the NaCl salt ions have been cap- sults implied that it is possible to place ACC before a
tured. Rejected ions were detected as crystal agglomer- membrane filtration element to enhance water treatment
ated particles around carbon fibers (7 nm~30 mm) where and protect expensive membrane units from undesired
a single crystal size of NaCl of ~7-18 nm is already in high amounts of NaCl. It is suggested by the author that
the observed range; which confirms the rejection of the further experimental parameters such as adsorption time,
NaCl salts. Moreover, crystal particles in the fibrous tan- pH, temperature, and pressure should be considered to
gled ACC were not there before the treatment process; develop the adsorption efficiency of NaCl onto ACC discs.
hence, the only explanation for that is those crystals are
agglomerate of NaCl salts trapped in the ACC cavities References
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