Biological activated carbon filter (BAC) is one of the most effective technologies for removing disinfection by-product (DBP) precursors from water. Biochar is a lower-cost medium that has the potential to replace granular activated carbon in BAC applications, thus leading to the development of biological biochar filter (BCF). This study compared BCF with BAC for the removal of DBP precursors using column experiments. Both BCF and BAC achieved the removal of DBP precursors, resulting in concentrations of all DBP formation potential below the World Health Organization guideline values for drinking water. Bromodichloromethane and unknown DBP precursor removal by BCF was comparable to that by BAC. However, BAC removed more chloroform and dichloroacetontrile precursors than BCF. For microbial community analysis, cell numbers in a bottom layer (inlet) of BCF and BAC columns were higher than those in the top layer. The abundances of and a microbial genus from at the bottom layer showed a strong correlation to the number of DBP precursors removed and were comparable in BCF and BAC. This finding likely contributes to the similarities between DBPs species removed and the removal performances of some known and unknown DBP precursors by BCF and BAC. Overall results from this study revealed that biochar can be served as a low-cost and sustainable replacement of activated carbon in water filter for DBP precursor removal.

中文翻译：

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生物炭和活性炭过滤器去除已知和未知消毒副产物前体和微生物群落的比较研究


生物活性炭过滤器 (BAC) 是去除水中消毒副产物 (DBP) 前体的最有效技术之一。生物炭是一种成本较低的介质，有潜力取代 BAC 应用中的颗粒活性炭，从而促进了生物生物炭过滤器 (BCF) 的发展。本研究通过柱实验比较了 BCF 和 BAC 去除 DBP 前体的效果。 BCF 和 BAC 均实现了 DBP 前体的去除，从而使所有 DBP 形成潜力的浓度低于世界卫生组织的饮用水指导值。 BCF 去除溴二氯甲烷和未知 DBP 前体的效果与 BAC 相当。然而，BAC 比 BCF 去除了更多的氯仿和二氯乙腈前体。对于微生物群落分析，BCF 和 BAC 柱底层（入口）的细胞数量高于顶层。底层的微生物属和微生物属的丰度与去除的 DBP 前体的数量有很强的相关性，并且在 BCF 和 BAC 中具有可比性。这一发现可能有助于解释 BCF 和 BAC 去除的 DBP 种类与某些已知和未知 DBP 前体的去除性能之间的相似性。这项研究的总体结果表明，生物炭可以作为水过滤器中活性炭的低成本且可持续的替代品，用于去除 DBP 前体。