Occurrence of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and their removal using novel regenerable ion exchange resins

PFAS在环境和人体中普遍存在，通过受污染的食物和水，消费品和工作场所暴露于这些化合物。 在人类和动物研究中，暴露于几种PFAS与一系列健康影响有关，即使是在非常低的痕量水平。 PFAS具有很强的环境持久性，因此被称为“永久化学品”。 目前，美国有42，000个PFAS污染场地。 仅在加拿大，这些化学品甚至污染了我国最偏远的地区，包括加拿大北极海洋生态系统和我们最重要的淡水资源-五大湖。 据预测，PFAS将推动水务公司在2030年之前花费超过120亿美元。 离子交换（IX）工艺等处理技术是去除天然沃茨中有毒PFAS的少数几种现有技术之一。然而，目前的工业实践是开发专门的PFAS专用树脂，其通常以单一装载和处置模式操作直到耗尽。这种策略增加了树脂需求，从而增加了IX的运营成本和浓缩有毒废物管理的挑战。此外，目前的技术极其昂贵，使许多供水公司无法采取必要的行动。 我们计划解决这些知识和技术方面的差距，首先评估PFAS在加拿大一些供水系统中的发生情况，以及确定水源水质，树脂微观结构，再生协议和PFAS去除（或消除）技术之间的联系。拟议的网络研究方法和不同学术研究人员，政府机构，水务公司，咨询工程师和技术提供商之间的密切合作关系，我们不仅将帮助监管机构和水务公司赢得与PFAS的斗争，确保后代的安全饮用水，而且还为加拿大工业，特别是我们的合作伙伴，在这个快速发展的市场中竞争的工具和技术。

PFAS are ubiquitous in the environment and in people, who are exposed to these compounds via contaminated food and water, consumer products, and workplaces. Exposure to several PFAS has been linked to a range of health effects in both human and animal studies, even at very low trace levels. PFAS are so environmentally persistent that they have been termed " forever chemicals". Currently in the US there are 42,000 PFAS contaminated sites identified. In Canada alone, these chemicals have contaminated even the most remote parts of our country, including the Canadian Arctic marine ecosystems and our most important freshwater resource - the Great Lakes. It is forecasted that PFAS will drive water utilities to spend in excess of $12 billion until 2030. Treatment technologies such as ion exchange (IX) process are among the few existing techniques that exhibit promising potentials for the removal of toxic PFAS from natural waters. However, the present-day industrial practice is to develop specialized PFAS-specific resins which are typically operated in a single load-and-dispose mode until exhaustion. This strategy increases the resin demand and the consequent operational cost of IX and challenge of concentrated toxic waste management. In addition, the current technologies are extremely expensive, preventing many water utilities to take the needed action. We plan on addressing these gaps in knowledge and technology, by first assessing the occurrence of PFAS in some Canadian water supplies, as well as identifying the links between source water quality, resin microstructure, regeneration protocols and PFAS defluorination (or elimination) techniques. The proposed network approach to research and close partnership among different academic researchers, government agencies, water utilities, consulting engineers, and technology providers, we will not only help the regulatory authorities and water utilities to win the fight against PFAS and ensure safe drinking water for generations to come, but also provide the Canadian industry, especially our partners, the tools and technologies to compete in this fast emerging market.