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US EPA’s Drinking Water PFAS Research
Citation:
Speth, T., A. Gillespie, C. Impellitteri, J. Burkhardt, AND M. Mills. US EPA’s Drinking Water PFAS Research. ASDWA Webinar, NA, ALBANIA, October 07, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
This talk will cover EPA's research on PFAS analytics and treatment of finished drinking waters. Drinking water utilities currently lack treatment technology cost data for PFAS removal.
Description:
This talk will cover EPA's research on PFAS analytics and treatment of ambient waters, biosolids, and finished drinking waters. Drinking Water Treatment Problem: Utilities lack treatment technology cost data for PFAS removal. Action: Gather performance and cost data from available sources (DOD, utilities, industry, etc.) Conduct EPA research on performance of treatment technologies including home treatment systems Update EPA’s Treatability Database and Unit Cost Models Connect EPA’s Treatability Database to EPA’s Unit Cost Models for ease of operation Model performance and cost, and then extrapolate to other scenarios Variable source waters Variable PFAS concentrations in source water Different reactivation/disposal options Document secondary benefits Address treatment impact on corrosion Evaluate reactivation of granular activated carbon (GAC) Impact: Enable utilities to make informed decisions about cost-effective treatment strategies for removing PFAS from drinking water. Future Work: Activated Carbon Reactivation Problem: There is a liability concern regarding the reactivation of spent granular activated carbon (GAC) What percentage of the adsorbed PFAS are released from the carbon and how much remains after reactivation? What conditions are optimal for reactivation (temperature, time, reactor configuration)? What impact does reactivation have on the performance of off-gas incineration treatment? Are PFAS released after reactivation with incineration off-gas treatment? Action: Conduct bench- and full-scale research on reactivation processes Impact of time and temperature PFAS reactions during reactivation Impact of post incineration