Your consulting firm is asked to design an activated carbon adsorption system to treat contaminated groundwater containing
10mg/L of benzene with a treatment goal of 99% reduction in benzene concentration before injection into groundwater. The extraction well pumps groundwater at
100gpm. The activated carbon removal capacity is expressed as the following Freundlich equation:
q(mg/g)=2C0.2, where C is the concentration (mg/L) of benzene after adsorption equilibrium. (a) What is the amount of activated carbon (kg) needed per day?(428.3 kg)
(b) If the packing density of activated carbon is 1.2 g/cm, how many 55-gallon tanks it would fill? Approximate to the nearest number exceeding the amount of activated carbon required.(∼2tanks)