Advanced treatment technologies efficacies and mechanism of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances removal from water

• Published in: Process safety and environmental protection 2020-04, Vol.136, p.1-14
• Main Authors: Ahmed, Mohammad Boshir, Alam, Md. Masruck, Zhou, John L., Xu, Bentuo, Johir, Md Abu Hasan, Karmakar, Aneek Krishna, Rahman, Md. Saifur, Hossen, Jewel, Hasan, A.T.M. Kamrul, Moni, Mohammad Ali
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Advanced oxidation; Animal tissues; Aqueous solutions; Biological activity; Chemical treatment; Defluorination; Electrochemical oxidation; Electrochemistry; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; Health risks; Heat treatment; Marine fish; Marine mammals; Natural environment; Oxidation; PFAS; Photocatalysis; Reduction; Sediments; Thermal degradation; Ultraviolet radiation; Wastewater treatment
• ISSN: 0957-5820; 1744-3598
• DOI: 10.1016/j.psep.2020.01.005

[Display omitted] •PFASs removal efficacy and mechanism through advanced technologies are reviewed.•Electrochemical degradation was successful for removing PFASs.•Defluorination, thermal and non-thermal degradation systems show promising results.•Limitations include process costs and toxic gas by product formation.•New electrode materials and new processes need to apply for PFASs degradation. The increasing occurrence of chemically resistant per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in the natural environment, animal tissues and even the human body poses a significant health risk. Temporal trend studies on water, sediments, bird, fish, marine mammal and the human show that the exposure of PFAS has significantly increased over the last 20–30 years. Different physical, biological and chemical treatment processes have been investigated for PFAS removal from water. However, there is a lack of detailed understating of the mechanism of removal by different methods, especially by different advanced chemical treatment processes. This article reviews PFASs removal efficacy and mechanism by the advanced chemical treatment methods from aqueous solution. Review shows that several advanced oxidation processes (e.g., electrochemical oxidation, activated persulfate oxidation, photocatalysis, UV-induced oxidation) are successful in degrading PFASs. Moreover, defluorination treatment, some thermal and non-thermal degradation processes are also found to be prominent for the degradation of PFASs with some limitations including process costs over physical treatment (e.g., sorption), production of toxic by-products and greenhouse gases. Finally, knowledge gaps concerning the advanced chemical treatment of PFASs are discussed.