Adsorption-Based Removal of Dissolved Pollutants by Filter Media in Transport-Related Infrastructures

This work originates from an internship experience carried out at a company specialized in wastewater and stormwater treatment. During this experience, two technologies for the treatment of stormwater runoff in transport-related infrastructures were investigated, both based on adsorption as the main mechanism for the removal of dissolved pollutants. The objective was to evaluate treatment efficiency by analysing parameters such as pH, conductivity, total suspended solids (TSS), turbidity, temperature, dielectric constant, and pollutant concentrations in the inlet and outlet water of the two systems. The two technologies employed different mixtures of adsorbent materials. The results showed that both systems influenced all the analysed parameters, particularly conductivity, TSS, and turbidity. Moreover, they demonstrated the ability to remove heavy metals and hydrocarbons, each showing specific selectivity. In conclusion, the study confirms the pollutant removal capacity of both technologies. Possible future work might include testing different adsorbent mixtures and performing longer-duration experiments to monitor the long-term behaviour of the adsorbents.