Improvement of water quality by using Wood-Based Activated Carbon Fibers

This study was examined the preliminary safety of water specimens from the water source of the purification plant first by Ames test and then used the Wood-Based Activated Carbon Fibers (WACFs) as an absorbent with two water purification methods to evaluate the water quality improvement. The water specimens' safety showed that neither cytotoxicity nor mutagenicity toward Salmonella typhimurium TA98 and TA100 with or without S9 mixture had no any cytotoxicity and mutagenicity. The turbidity and total hardness of the water improved by prepared WACFs were 0.37-1.60 NTU and 292.00-136.68 mg/L as CaCO₄, respectively, meeting the quality standard for drinking water in Taiwan. The pH value in water was increased by WACFs filtration or standing in solution, and after processing was about 9.55-10.02. The maximum percent removal of sodium nitrite standard solution 0.1 μg/mL at 2 hours of standing time after processing with WACFs was about 34.5%. The total bacterial count, and Escherichia coli and coliform group were achieved the drinking water standards in Taiwan by microbiological analysis with the standing method for over 30 min. It is suggested that the WACFs; therefore, can be as the absorbent of water purification for the water quality improvement.