Grantee Research Project Results
Electrochemical Pretreatment of PFAS-Contaminated Aqueous Effluents
EPA Contract Number: 68HERC20C0058Title: Electrochemical Pretreatment of PFAS-Contaminated Aqueous Effluents
Investigators: Lee, Katherine
Small Business: Faraday Technology, Inc.
EPA Contact: Richards, April
Phase: II
Project Period: June 1, 2020 through May 31, 2022 (Extended to May 31, 2023)
Project Amount: $300,000
RFA: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) - Phase II (2020) Recipients Lists
Research Category: SBIR - Water and Wastewater , Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
Description:
Recent research has demonstrated that per- and polyfluorinated alkyl species (PFAS) are highly refractory and bio-accumulative when released to the environment, and have the potential to cause numerous adverse health effects. Development of novel approaches for in situ degradation of PFAS in industrial wastewater and landfill leachate streams would greatly facilitate efforts to prevent discharge of these hazardous materials to the hydrosphere. The electrochemical activity of PFAS has already been shown in the literature, provided that electrodes with sufficiently high water electrolysis overpotentials are used. The proposed Phase II SBIR program would extend the Phase I efforts demonstrating the feasibility of pulsed-waveform electrocatalysis to destroy PFAS efficiently and cost-effectively, by identifying optimized electroreactor operating parameters, developing an improved understanding of process performance on destruction of various PFAS of concern and of the effects of various wastewater/leachate stream constituents (e.g., chloride ion) on the PFAS destruction performance, demonstrating the technology at an alpha-scale, and refining the economic analysis. Numerous governmental and industry stakeholders have an express interest in mitigating PFAS in a variety of contexts, and an electrochemical PFAS destruction technology like that under development is anticipated to find significant market demand from these entities, as supported by the substantial commercialization team assembled for the Phase II program. Currently, the only established method for large-scale PFAS remediation to below the 70 parts-per-trillion EPA lifetime health advisory level is activated carbon adsorption, which is extremely costly and generates a PFAS-contaminated waste stream that must be further treated. The flexibility, scalability, and low cost of the proposed technology are anticipated to be significantly favorable as compared to state-of-the-art methods.
Publications and Presentations:
Publications have been submitted on this project: View all 6 publications for this projectProgress and Final Reports:
SBIR Phase I:
Electrochemical Pretreatment of PFAS-Contaminated Aqueous Effluents | 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.