Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a family of highly toxic emerging contaminants that have caught the attention of both the public and private sectors due to their adverse health impacts on society. The scientific community has been laboriously working on two fronts: (1) adapting already existing and effective technologies in destroying organic contaminants for PFAS remediation and (2) developing new technologies to remediate PFAS. A common characteristic in both areas is the separation/removal of PFASs from other contaminants or media, followed by destruction. The widely adopted separation technologies can remove PFASs from being in contact with humans; however, they remain in the environment and continue to pose health risks. On the other hand, the destructive technologies discussed here can effectively destroy PFAS compounds and fully address society’s urgent need to remediate this harmful family of chemical compounds. This review reports and compare widely accepted as well as emerging PFAS destruction technologies. Some of the technologies presented in this review are still under development at the lab scale, while others have already been tested in the field.

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A Review of PFAS Destruction Technologies

Treatment technologies for removal of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in biosolids

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have drawn increasing concern due to their widespread presence and persistence in the environment. In contrast, standard methods and manuals have been developed only recently...

Occurrence of Per‐ and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Water: A Review

A review of microbial degradation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS): Biotransformation routes and enzymes.

Granular activated carbon (GAC) is the most widely used and well-established treatment technology for the removal of per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contaminants from drinking water and wastewater. After the GAC has reached the end of its useful service life and become “spent carbon,” it is common practice in industry to thermally treat it in a process known as reactivation. The reactivation process volatilizes and destroys adsorbed contaminants at high temperatures and restores the GAC to a near-virgin state so that it can be reused. Since the advent of PFAS regulatory actions, questions have arisen about the effectiveness of the reactivation process for the destruction of PFAS given their high thermal stability and the lack of documented study on this new topic. In light of this, a thorough program of testing was carried out at a full-scale GAC reactivation facility during the reactivation of a load of GAC known to contain adsorbed PFAS. The facility employs a multihearth Herreschoff furnace and a downstream abatement train that includes a thermal oxidizer, spray quench cooler, dry injection scrubber, and baghouse. All inputs and outputs of the system were tested for targeted PFAS compounds and fluoride (total and as hydrogen fluoride). Under typical operating conditions, the system demonstrated both full removal of PFAS compounds from GAC and >99.99% destruction of PFAS compounds through the furnace and abatement system. Additional key findings include: (1) a large portion of the PFAS destruction occurs in the furnace, before the thermal oxidizer; (2) the fluoride mass balance was close to 61.4%; and (3) emission levels were significantly lower than available public data for PFAS manufacturing emissions. 

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/rem.21735

Thermal destruction of PFAS during full‐scale reactivation of PFAS‐laden granular activated carbon

The release of persistent per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) into the environment is a major concern for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA). To complement its ongoing research efforts addressing PFAS contamination, the U.S. EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) commissioned the PFAS Innovative Treatment Team (PITT) to provide new perspectives on treatment and disposal of high priority PFAS-containing wastes. During its six-month tenure, the team was charged with identifying and developing promising solutions to destroy PFAS. The PITT examined emerging technologies for PFAS waste treatment and selected four technologies for further investigation. These technologies included mechanochemical treatment, electrochemical oxidation, gasification and pyrolysis, and supercritical water oxidation. This paper highlights these four technologies and discusses their prospects and the development needed before potentially becoming available solutions to address PFAS-contaminated waste.Implications: This paper examines four novel, non-combustion technologies or applications for the treatment of persistent per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) wastes. These technologies are introduced to the reader along with their current state of development and areas for further development. This information will be useful for developers, policy makers, and facility managers that are facing increasing issues with disposal of PFAS wastes. 

Hongji Liu

Papers

Developing innovative treatment technologies for PFAS-containing wastes