Setup
Getting started
New to this tool? Turn on the worked example beside the page title to see a taste and odour event (geosmin and 2-MIB together), using the library values. Turning it off again restores whatever you had entered.
The tool estimates the powdered activated carbon (PAC) dose needed to bring one or more compounds down to a target, then turns that dose into a feed and cost package. Work through the tabs in order:
- 1 Setup: plant, source water, PAC and contact time.
- 2 Contaminants: the compounds to remove, with raw-water and target concentrations. The hardest to remove sets the dose.
- 3 Design: design dose, PAC mass, slurry feed and indicative cost.
- 4 Sensitivity: how the dose moves with contact time, DOC, removal and particle size.
- 5 Calibrate: fit the isotherm to your own jar tests.
- 6 Report & Save: PDF, CSV and project file.
On this tab, set the plant, source-water and PAC properties that apply to every contaminant. These feed the dose model on the Design tab.
- Source water: DOC drives natural-organic-matter (NOM) competition, which lowers PAC capacity. pH matters for ionisable compounds (acids).
- PAC properties: carbon type and median particle size (d₅₀) set the adsorption rate. Finer carbon reaches equilibrium faster in the same contact time.
- Dosing & contact: carbon is added at the dose point but keeps adsorbing until it is separated (settling, clarifier or filter). Enter the total effective contact time over that path; it drives the kinetics. Short contact = kinetically limited = higher dose.
Model constants (NOM coefficients, reference particle size), display units and the contaminant library defaults are in Settings. The model basis, assumptions and references are in About this model.
Plant
PAC properties
Source water
Dosing & contact
Contaminants
Guide: using this tab
List the compounds you need PAC to remove. Pick from the library or add a custom one, then set the raw-water concentration (C₀) and your target (C target). The tool finds the PAC dose for each and the controlling (worst-case) contaminant drives the design.
Choosing C₀ (raw water): use a realistic event concentration: a bloom peak for cyanotoxins, a seasonal high for taste & odour, or your worst measured pesticide detection. If you don't have data, the library defaults are conservative typical values, not site measurements.
Choosing C target (treated water):
- Cyanotoxins & pesticides: set below the relevant health limit. Defaults use NZ provisional MAVs where they exist (e.g. microcystins ≈ 1.2 µg/L, cylindrospermopsin ≈ 1.0 µg/L, anatoxin-a ≈ 6 µg/L, atrazine/simazine ≈ 2 µg/L). WHO guideline values differ in places (e.g. cylindrospermopsin 0.7 µg/L). Design to a margin below the limit, not at it. Verify the current MAV against the Taumata Arowai / DWQAR 2026 schedule before use.
- Geosmin & 2-MIB: no health MAV; these are aesthetic. The target is set by human detection: sensitive consumers (super-tasters) detect both at roughly 5–10 ng/L. So aim for C target < 10 ng/L; the defaults use 5 ng/L to sit safely below the odour threshold.
Switch the concentration unit (mg/L · µg/L · ng/L) in Settings. ng/L is the natural unit for taste & odour.
Contaminants
C₀ and C target are shown in the unit set in Settings. K_f is always in (µg/g)(L/µg)^1/n; q is in µg/g; these stay fixed regardless of the display unit.
| Compound | C₀ | C target | K_f | 1/n | k₀ | dose (mg/L) | status |
|---|
No contaminants yet. Add one from the library above.
Amber and red status badges are prompts to look, not instructions to act.
Design
Guide: using this tab
Turns the controlling dose into a practical design package: PAC mass flow, slurry feed rate, annual tonnage and cost, plus a dosing-point check.
- Design dose: controlling contaminant dose × safety factor.
- Mass & feed: converts dose and flow to kg/h and the slurry feed rate at your slurry strength, plus feed rate per mg/L of dose so you can size the metering pump across your operating range.
- Cost: indicative carbon cost per ML treated and per year. Excludes sludge handling and labour.
- Dosing-point check: flags whether the chosen point gives enough contact time to approach equilibrium.
Sensitivity
Guide: using this tab
Shows how a compound's required dose responds to the variables you can least pin down. Pick which compound to examine at the top (it defaults to the controlling one, but you can check any of them). The dashed crosshair marks the current operating point, labelled with its dose and value; hover any curve for point values.
- vs contact time: how much dose you save with more contact (the kinetic benefit).
- vs DOC: sensitivity to NOM competition; steep curves mean calibration matters most.
- vs % removal: cost of pushing to a tighter target.
- vs particle size: finer carbon vs dose trade-off.
Calibrate
Guide: using this tab
Fit the Freundlich isotherm (K_f and 1/n) to your own jar-test data. Enter each jar's PAC dose, starting concentration and the residual measured after contact. The tool computes loading q = 1000·(C₀ − C_e)/D and fits the isotherm in log-log space.
- Two or more jars: fits both K_f and 1/n by regression and reports R².
- One jar: fixes 1/n at the assumed value and back-calculates K_f.
Report & Save
Guide: using this tab
The single place to export, save and reload your work. Nothing is exported automatically; you choose what goes in.
- PDF report: opens your browser's print dialog. Choose "Save as PDF". For a clean output, turn off "Headers and footers" in the print dialog and leave margins at default.
- CSV: downloads the selected tables as comma-separated data for Excel.
- Save project (JSON): writes every setting and result to a
.jsonfile in your downloads. Load project reads one back in to pick up where you left off.
Include in export
Choose which sections appear in the PDF and CSV.
Export
PDF uses your browser's print-to-PDF. Disable "Headers and footers" in the dialog for a clean page.
Save & load project
A JSON file holds all inputs, library edits and results.