活性炭吸附在美国被广泛用于去除水中的微量有机化合物。尽管粉末活性炭（PAC）和颗粒活性炭（GAC）在这方面得到了广泛的应用，但活性炭系统的设计和性能预测一直缺乏良好的工具。这在很大程度上是由于天然有机物（NOM）与多孔吸附剂中微量化合物竞争效应的复杂性。然而，近年来，用等效背景化合物理想吸附溶液理论（EBC）成功地描述了纳米对痕量有机物吸附平衡的影响- 最后）方法。利用EBC-ASAST基金会，用PSUEDO单溶质均匀表面扩散模型（HSDM）成功地描述了痕量有机物在NOM存在下的吸附动力学。此外，还开发了几种简化方法来预测天然水的吸附。基于简单的实验室规模试验，这些方法对大多数用于微量有机物去除的PAC系统的全尺寸性能提供了令人满意的预测。然而，由于我们对水连续流经固定碳质量时的各种机理了解有限，我们预测GAC去除痕量化合物性能的能力仍然很差。 本文综述了GAC和PAC系统在美国水处理行业的应用现状和最新研究，重点介绍了NOM在痕量有机化合物吸附中的竞争效应。包括39个参考文献、图表。

Activated carbon adsorption is widely used in the US for trace organiccompound removal from water. In spite of the wide application of powdered activated carbon (PAC) and granular activated carbon (GAC) for this purpose, there has been a lack of good tools for design and performance prediction for activated carbon systems. This is largely due to the complexity of the competitive effects of natural organic matter (NOM) with the trace compounds in porous adsorbents. In recent years, however, the effect ofNOM on trace organic compound adsorption equilibrium has been successfully described by the equivalent background compound, ideal adsorbed solution theory (EBC-IAST) method. With the EBC-IAST foundation, the adsorption kinetics of trace organic compounds in the presence of NOM has been successfully described by the psuedo-single solute homogeneous surface diffusion model (HSDM). Also, several simplified methods have been developed to predict adsorption from natural water. Based on simple laboratory-scale tests, these methods provide satisfactory prediction of full-scale performance of most PAC systems used for trace organic removal. However, our ability to predict GAC performance for tracecompound removal is still poor due to our limited understanding of various mechanisms at work when water continuously flows through a stationary mass of carbon. This paper reviews the current applications and recent research on GAC and PAC systems in the US water treatment industry, with a focus on the understanding of competitive effects of NOM in trace organic compound adsorption. Includes 39 references, figures.