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Thermal treatment of PFAS in environmental media (08/2023)
Citation:
Potter, P. Thermal treatment of PFAS in environmental media (08/2023). ACS Annual Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, August 13 - 17, 2023.
Impact/Purpose:
PFAS contamination is widespread in our environment and may adversely impact human health. Thermal treatment is commonly used for both sewage sludge and GAC, which both typically contain PFAS. There is growing attention on non-targeted analysis of PFAS to properly assess the fate of these compounds during thermal treatment. A pilot-scale fluidized bed reactor was used to mimic both full-scale sewage sludge incineration and GAC reactivation. Gas-phase emissions were collected, along with solid and liquid residuals, and analyzed for products of incomplete combustion (PICs). These findings should influence future studies on thermal treatment of PFAS by assessing current thermal treatment conditions on the fate of these compounds. These methodologies may be useful to a variety of government and academic researchers investigating PFAS remediation.
Description:
PFAS are ubiquitous, persistent, and bioaccumulate in the environment. Thermal treatment methods are currently applied to a variety of PFAS-containing materials, including sewage sludge and granular activated carbon (GAC), but may not be sufficient to fully mineralize organic fluorine. The efficiency of thermal treatment methods is typically assessed using targeted PFAS quantification, but this targeted approach can overlook products of incomplete combustion (PICs). Non-targeted analysis of PFAS is required to properly assess the efficacy of these thermal treatment methods and to determine the fate of these compounds in thermal treatment systems. Results from multiple thermal treatment systems involving PFAS-containing waste will be presented.