Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: A Novel, Nanostructured, Metal-Organic Frameworks-Based Pretreatment Technology for the Remediation of PFAS in Industrial Wastewater
EPA Contract Number: 68HERC20C0055Title: A Novel, Nanostructured, Metal-Organic Frameworks-Based Pretreatment Technology for the Remediation of PFAS in Industrial Wastewater
Investigators: Ozdemir, Osman K
Small Business: Framergy, Inc
EPA Contact: Richards, April
Phase: II
Project Period: June 1, 2020 through May 31, 2022 (Extended to October 31, 2022)
RFA: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) - Phase II (2020) Recipients Lists
Research Category: SBIR - Water Quality , Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
Description:
Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of chemicals, including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS). These chemicals are used globally for applications ranging from firefighting foam to non-stick coatings on cookware. Due to their environmental persistence and toxicity, the need for PFAS remediation in water has greatly increased. Due to the tendency of PFAS to be found in complex mixtures in the environment, water treatment methods must combine multiple strategies to be effective.
In the proposed Phase II activity, framergy, Inc. furthered the development of its novel water treatment technology to the full-scale testing phase to implement this technology at industrial wastewater pre-/post-treatment facilities. This technology utilizes a leading-edge, nanostructured sorbent to effectively remove per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) by leveraging its highly selective adsorption and photocatalytic properties. At the heart of this technology are the innovative, chemically stable, Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), which can be tailored for selective PFAS and PFOS capture and photocatalytic breakdown.
This technology and product development activity has successfully demonstrated that framergy's MOFs could not only photocatalytically break down the tested PFAS into less bio-accumulative shorter chains but also mineralize them completely. Tested PFAS were captured from water and stored within the MOFs' porous structure, and their connected, photocatalytically active channels were utilized to allow for efficient mass transfer and photocatalytic mineralization.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
Over the course of the Phase II period, framergy applied synthetic and post-synthetic modification techniques to enhance PFAS uptake in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) capable of completely degrading and mineralizing PFAS in water with the use of UV light. At the optimized conditions, Ti-MOFs showed complete degradation of perfluorinated compounds in 12 hours.
To productize this water treatment concept, the team utilized an innovative MOFs catalyst bed concept for immobilizing MOF particles in the flow-through reactor, allowing for an even distribution of Ti-MOF throughout the flow-through reactor and eliminating the need to operate a slurry reactor for PFAS treatment. The effects of a sacrificial reductant, pH and dissolved oxygen, and UV wavelength on the mineralization of PFAS were also investigated. Post-synthetic modification of the Ti-MOFs was achieved using etching techniques. A hierarchical pore structure was created in the Ti-MOFs leading to an increase in their PFAS uptake capacity.
To ensure the feasibility of pilot scale efforts, framergy focused on optimizing the synthetic routes used to produce the Ti-MOFs for PFAS degradation and mineralization. The cost of the Ti-MOFs was reduced through the in-house synthesis of the ligand and scale-up of batch sizes. The structural integrity and the PFAS capture capacity of these materials were maintained at the multi-kilogram scale yielding lower-cost, high-performing MOFs.
Conclusions:
The Phase II results show that framergy has successfully completed the research necessary to optimize a prototype batch reactor for PFAS remediation utilizing a Ti-MOF and is ready to advance to the next stage of commercialization. The innovative MOFs catalyst bed flowthrough reactor was shown to be highly effective and robust throughout multiple cycles of PFAS-contaminated water remediation. In addition to GenX and PFOS degradation, at ppb-level starting concentrations, framergy's Ti-MOF-based mineralization technology achieved complete degradation of PFOA from water.
During the optional commercialization period, framergy conducted the R&D required to build a prototype, increase the prototype's PFAS remediation performance and integrate a continuous flow system for field testing. framergy received several inquiries regarding PFAS remediation technology during this time. framergy successfully used this technology to remediate samples provided by several third-party entities.
The waste liquid generated by current remediation technologies is highly concentrated in PFAS and must be disposed of. The destruction of PFAS is the rate-limiting step in most remediation technologies. framergy's innovation competes with the most promising PFAS destruction technology, electrochemical oxidation. This is plant-proven and has demonstrated good downstream integration with existing PFAS capture processes at a moderate scale. There exist other processes, such as cold plasma techniques and super-critical water oxidation that have demonstrated some preliminary promise with respect to the destruction of PFAS, but neither has been shown to be effective at plant scale. framergy's mineralization technology, funded by this program, is included in this category with several advantages: both electrochemical and cold plasma systems are prone to component corrosion as the treated water streams contain high salt concentrations, a problem not shared by framergy's MOF-based technologies.
Journal Articles on this Report : 2 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other project views: | All 2 publications | 2 publications in selected types | All 2 journal articles |
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Wen, Y.; Rentería-Gómez, Á.; Day, G. S.; Smith, M. F.; Yan, T.-H.; Ozdemir, R. O. K.; Gutierrez, O.; Sharma, V. K.; Ma, X.; Zhou, H.-C. Integrated Photocatalytic Reduction and Oxidation of Perfluorooctanoic Acid by Metal-Organic Frameworks:Key Insights into the Degradation Mechanisms. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2022, 144 (26), 11840-11850. DOI:10.1021/jacs.2c04341. |
68HERC20C0055 (Final) |
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Young, D. (2021, February 3). Using metal organic frameworks to kill covid-19 virus. AZoM.com. Retrieved November 27, 2022, from https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=19346. |
68HERC20C0055 (Final) |
not available |
SBIR Phase I:
A Novel, Nanostructured,Metal-OrganicFrameworks-BasedPretreatmentTechnology for the Remediationof PFAS inIndustrial Wastewater | Final ReportThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.