Carbon Scrubbing and Acetone Removal

Not effectively. It needs to be oxidized to be fully removed.

It would be better to find the source of the acetone, and stop it entering the waste stream.

Further, carbon filters require active surface to be presented to the fluid to be fully effective. On a waste water stream, that means eliminating anything that might clog the active sites. Suspended solids are the usual culprits. Anything that blocks up an active site will reduce the effectiveness of the carbon filter in removing organics.

So in industrial water treatment it is commonplace to put a multi-media filter upstream of the carbon filter to take out any dirt prior to the stream hitting the carbon. The outlet from these two is often referred to as "pretreated water".

Applying this thinking to a wastewater situation, the water need no longer be waste by the time it has passed through both a multi-media and a carbon filter. By that time, it is well on the way to being a supply stream for doing something else. Could the filtered water be used instead of drawing upon the town mains potable supply for non-potable uses:

• Prior to ion removal for boiler water treatment?
• Cooling tower make-up?
• Irrigation/gardening/landscaping?
• Flushing toilets?
• Hose-down use?
• etc.

Think about the total water inlet and outlet flows within the plant, and look at the economics and practicalities of taking parallel streams through the plant and turning them into circular ones.

Bear in mind that both town mains potable flow and effluent flow are charged on a volumetric basis, particularly strongly in the case of the latter. Local economics will disctate the appropriate courses of action.