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）在许多联邦和私人设施中因使用和释放水性成膜泡沫（afff）而被发现。在关于全氟辛烷磺酸和全氟辛酸的新法规的推动下，迫切需要开发具有成本效益和高效的处理技术，以从废水中去除这些持久性和有毒化学品。由于全氟辛烷磺酸和全氟辛烷磺酸具有高度稳定性和抗微生物或化学侵蚀性，传统的高级氧化或吸附工艺要么无效，要么成本高昂。Golder Associates正计划为其客户提供一种新型的非热等离子体技术，用于PFAS废水处理的未来项目。尽管非热等离子体已被报道为完全分解PFAS的最有效方法，但很少进行测量和验证测试来确定污染物降解效率和降解最终产物。因此，Golder与McGill大学的申请人（J. Liu教授）建立了新的合作伙伴关系，他是PFAS的测量，处理和环境命运评估方面的专家，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。该项目还将对PFAS在非热等离子体过程中的降解机制产生新的认识。工业合作伙伴可以利用这些知识来支持技术的扩展并扩大其客户群。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.