Water Treatment Technologies for PFAS: The Next Generation

Of all the known persistent organic pollutants, few pose as complicated a challenge to the water treatment industry as poly and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). This class of compounds does not readily biodegrade, they are highly mobile in groundwater aquifers, and early indications are that they will be regulated to extremely low levels (parts per trillion). In addition, many of the conventional water treatment strategies such as all forms of biological treatment, exploiting volatility for physical removal, and chemical oxidation are not applicable. For the time being, it is clear that PFAS-impacted water treatment will necessitate a treatment train approach that often involves a combination of sorption and separation techniques. The good news is that cutting edge advancements in treatment technologies are paving the way for greater treatment efficiency, even in the more challenging area of PFAS destruction. This presentation will preview exciting new treatment techniques and associated field applications that are on this cutting edge, like modified silica sorbents, a new method of separation via “ozofractionation”, and advancement of destruction-based technologies including sonolysis and electrochemical treatment. This next generation of technology opens up new possibilities for treatment effectiveness and efficiency that didn’t exist before and represent big areas of opportunity for further creativity! This will build off of the GWMR column of the same title published in Spring 2018.