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Impact of phosphate addition on PFAS treatment performance for drinking water
Citation:
Haupert, L., A. Redding, M. Gray, J. Civardi, B. Datsov, T. Sanan, M. Mills, T. Speth, AND J. Burkhardt. Impact of phosphate addition on PFAS treatment performance for drinking water. AWWA Water Science. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 5(6):e1361, (2023). https://doi.org/10.1002/aws2.1361
Impact/Purpose:
Adding new unit operations to drinking water treatment systems requires consideration of not only efficacy for its design purpose but also cost, water quality characteristics, impact on overall regulatory compliance, and impact of other treatment unit operations. Here, pilot study results for ion exchange (IX) and granular activated carbon (GAC) are presented for a utility with both PFAS and volatile organic contaminant removal needs. Specifically, the impact of upstream air stripping and phosphate addition on PFAS treatment performance. Modeling was used to fit the IX and GAC pilot data and predict performance under different scenarios. GAC performance was generally consistent treating water before or after the air stripper, but the addition of phosphate prior to air-stripping to control calcium scale buildup resulted in loss of 15–25% capacity for some PFAS on IX media, demonstrating the need to consider the entire treatment train before implementation of PFAS removal unit operations.
Description:
Adding new unit operations to drinking water treatment systems requires consideration of not only efficacy for its design purpose but also cost, water quality characteristics, impact on overall regulatory compliance, and impact of other treatment unit operations. Here, pilot study results for ion exchange (IX) and granular activated carbon (GAC) are presented for a utility with both PFAS and volatile organic contaminant removal needs. Specifically, the impact of upstream air stripping and phosphate addition on PFAS treatment performance. Modeling was used to fit the IX and GAC pilot data and predict performance under different scenarios. GAC performance was generally consistent treating water before or after the air stripper, but the addition of phosphate prior to air-stripping to control calcium scale buildup resulted in loss of 15–25% capacity for some PFAS on IX media, demonstrating the need to consider the entire treatment train before implementation of PFAS removal unit operations.
