The effects of operational modes on the removal of a synthetic organic chemical (SOC) in natural water by powdered activated carbon (PAC) during ultrafiltration (UF) were studied, through model simulations and experiments. The removal percentage of the trace SOC was independent of its influent concentration for a given PAC dose. The minimum PAC dosage required to achieve a desired effluent concentration could quickly be optimized from the C/C0 plot as a function of the PAC dosage. The cross-flow operation was not advantageous over the dead-end regarding the SOC removal. Added PAC was re-circulated as a suspension in the UF loop for only a short time even under the cross-flow velocity of gt; 1.0 m/s. The cross-flow condition did not contribute much to the suspending of PAC. The pulse PAC addition at the beginning of a filtration cycle resulted in somewhat better SOC removal than the continuous PAC addition. The increased NOM loading on PAC which was dosed in a pulse and stayed longer in the UF loop could possibly further decrease the adsorption rate.