Evaluating non-thermal plasma technology for degrading perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl surfactants (PFAS) in wastewater

全氟辛烷磺酸（PFOS）、全氟辛酸（PFOA）及其相关的全氟烷基和多氟烷基表面活性剂（PFASs）已在许多联邦和私人设施中被发现，它们来自于水成膜泡沫（AFFF）的使用和释放。在PFOS和PFOA新法规的推动下，迫切需要开发具有成本效益和高效的处理技术，以去除废水中这些持久性和有毒化学品。由于全氟辛烷磺酸和全氟辛酸具有高度稳定性，能够抵抗微生物或化学品的侵袭，因此传统的高级氧化或吸附工艺要么效率不高，要么成本过高。Golder Associates正计划在未来的PFAS废水处理项目中为其客户提供一种新型的非热等离子体技术。虽然低温等离子体已被报道为最有效的过程中，完全打破PFAS，一些测量和验证测试已经进行，以确定污染物的降解效率和降解的最终产品。因此，Golder与麦吉尔大学的申请人（J. Liu教授）建立了新的合作伙伴关系，他是PFAS测量，处理和环境归宿评估的专家，以解决这些问题。新伙伴关系的目标是评估该技术的技术和经济可行性。该项目还将产生关于PFAS在非热等离子体过程中降解机制的新知识。工业合作伙伴可以利用这些知识来支持技术的升级并扩大其客户群。该项目将通过降低处理PFAS污染的成本，使加拿大的经济和环境受益。

Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and their related perfluoroalkyl andpolyfluoroalkyl surfactants (PFASs) have been found in many federal and private facilities from the use of andrelease of aqueous film-forming foams (AFFFs). Driven by the new regulations on PFOS and PFOA, there is agreat need for developing cost-effective and efficient treatment technologies for removing these persistent andtoxic chemicals from wastewaters. As PFOS and PFOA are highly stable and resistant to microbial or chemicalattacks, conventional advanced oxidation or sorption-based processes are either not effective or are very costprohibitive. Golder Associates is planning to offer a novel non-thermal plasma technology to its clients infuture projects for PFAS wastewater treatment. Although non-thermal plasma has been reported as the mosteffective process to break down PFAS completely, few measurement and validation tests have been conductedto determine pollutant degradation efficiencies and degradation end-products. Therefore, a new collaborativepartnership between Golder and the applicant (Prof. J. Liu) at McGill University, who is an expert onmeasurement, treatment and environmental fate evaluation of PFAS, to address the issues. The goal of the newpartnership is to assess the technical and economic feasibility of the technology. This project will also generatenew knowledge on PFAS degradation mechanisms in non-thermal plasma processes. The industrial partner canuse the knowledge to support scale-up of the technology and to expand its client base. The project will benefitCanada's economy and the environment by reducing the cost of dealing with PFAS contamination.