Treatment technologies for aqueous perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA)
Abstract
Fluorochemicals (FCs) are oxidatively recalcitrant, environmentally persistent, and resistant to most conventional treatment technologies. FCs have unique physiochemical properties derived from fluorine which is the most electronegative element. Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) have been detected globally in the hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere. Reducing treatment technologies such as reverses osmosis, nano-filtration and activated carbon can remove FCs from water. However, incineration of the concentrated waste is required for complete FC destruction. Recently, a number of alternative technologies for FC decomposition have been reported. The FC degradation technologies span a wide range of chemical processes including direct photolysis, photocatalytic oxidation, photochemical oxidation, photochemical reduction, thermally-induced reduction, and sonochemical pyrolysis. This paper reviews these FC degradation technologies in terms of kinetics, mechanism, energetic cost, and applicability. The optimal PFOS/PFOA treatment method is strongly dependent upon the FC concentration, background organic and metal concentration, and available degradation time.
Additional Information
© 2009 Springer. Received: 23 November 2008; accepted: 10 March 2009; published online: 27 May 2009. The authors thank the 3M Company for the research support, including the donation to Caltech of analytical standards and an Agilent LC-MS-Ion Trap mass spectrometer. The authors also thank Dr. Nathan Dalleska of the Environmental Analytical Center.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 16451
- DOI
- 10.1007/s11783-009-0022-7
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20091022-115846361
- 3M Company
- Created
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2009-10-22Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field