Grantee Research Project Results

Advanced Plasma Vortex Equipment for the Destruction of PFAS Contaminants in Water

EPA Contract Number: 68HERC20C0024
Title: Advanced Plasma Vortex Equipment for the Destruction of PFAS Contaminants in Water
Investigators: Cho, Daniel
Small Business: Onvector LLC
EPA Contact: Richards, April
Phase: I
Project Period: March 1, 2020 through August 31, 2020
Project Amount: $99,838
RFA: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) - Phase I (2020) RFA Text |  Recipients Lists
Research Category: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) , SBIR - Clean and Safe Water

Description:

Contamination by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) has become an immense environmental issue in the US in recent years. PFAS are a group of man-made chemicals, the most common being perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), that are very persistent in the environment and cause adverse health effects in humans upon exposure. This year, 610 locations in 43 states, as well as more than 1,500 drinking water systems serving up to 110 million Americans have been found to be contaminated with PFAS. Effective and reliable treatment of PFAS-contaminated water is a necessity not only to protect humans against exposure to these harmful substances but also to remediate and protect our environment.

Onvector is developing a new type of water/wastewater treatment product, called the Plasma Vortex, that can destroy PFAS on a commercial scale. The Plasma Vortex reactor employs a proprietary method of stretching a plasma arc to facilitate the reliable generation of a wide variety of oxidizing and reactant agents within the water matrix. The geometry and use of gas in the plasma reactor enables stable plasma discharge regardless of the conductivity of the liquid, overcoming the common challenge in plasma treatment of liquids of short-circuit quenching. These methods result in up to 70% less energy consumption than conventional plasma equipment when treating contaminants commonly found in wastewater and groundwater.

Onvector has conducted initial testing of PFOS treatment at a state-of-the-art laboratory. Results showed a 71% reduction in a high concentration baseline, and a 36% reduction in a low concentration baseline, each with 20 passes at a flow rate of 5 gpm. The proposed Phase I research is intended to increase the efficacy of treating PFOS and PFOA to a 99.99% reduction at 30 gpm with fewer than 5 passes. The architecture is modular and further research could scale up the equipment to larger flows.

The proposed research efforts will focus on testing to optimize the current version of the prototype and to reduce the number of passes required for adequate destruction of PFAS. Parametric evaluation of plasma power variations on overall PFAS reduction. Bench testing will be conducted during Phase I with envisioned field at an environmental remediation site during a potential Phase II project.

Progress and Final Reports:

Final Report