Engineered filtration media for broad-spectrum contaminant removal in water treatment

Abstract

Polymers and metals-functionalized media were assessed for their versatility and ability to remove both conventional and emerging contaminants for drinking water applications. We synthesized 25 functionalized media and evaluated their performance over 640 filtration experiments across diverse water matrices and contaminant classes. For the removal of total organic carbon, turbidity, nanoplastics, phosphorus, metals, and PFOS, the functionalized media consistently and markedly outperformed conventional unmodified sand – which remains widely used globally as the final barrier for contaminant interception in drinking water treatment. By lowering turbidity and TOC, the functionalized media could strengthen pathogen control – consistent with the use of filtered-water turbidity in Canadian, U.S., and European regulations as an operational indicator of filtration performance and microbial barrier integrity – while reducing disinfection-by-product precursor loads and downstream disinfectant demand. The functionalized media were also regenerable through a simple pH-adjusted washing procedure. This study further demonstrated that functionalization can be applied directly to the sand already used in drinking water treatment filters. Because the functionalized media retain the same grain-size distribution and filter-bed depth, existing sand filters can be upgraded without replacing the starting media or substantially modifying plant infrastructure. This retrofit strategy could therefore considerably reduce full-scale implementation costs while providing a practical pathway to enhanced treatment performance.