Electrochemical Destruction of per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Complex Solution Matrices
Authors: Ensch Mary , Davis Emma , Landis Greg D. , Maldonado Vanessa Y. , Becker Michael F , Rusinek Cory Allen , Rancis Nick , Schuelke Thomas 
Published: May 2020

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of manmade chemicals which are persistent in the environment and have shown to be toxic to human health. They have accumulated in drinking water, groundwater, and wastewater around the globe for over six decades. Although the production of some chain lengths has ceased, remediation is critical. Current remediation techniques include adsorbents such as granular activated carbon (GAC) and Ion exchange (IX) columns. GAC is merely used to adsorb the PFAS, but struggles with capturing shorter chains and requires regeneration with incineration.1 IX has shown improvement in its ability to capture all PFAS chain lengths, and can be regenerated with a solution comprised of a salt or base and an alcohol.1 This regenerate solution desorbs all of the PFAS from the resin into a smaller concentrated solution of roughly a few hundred gallons. This solution is typically comprised of PFAS in the parts per million (ppm) range.2 These concentrated PFAS solutions can lead to further contamination of the environment through discharge of landfill leachate to wastewater treatment plants from landfill disposal. Due to the high salinity, low volume, and high concentration of PFAS in IX regenerate solutions, electrochemical oxidation is a promising treatment technology to destroy the PFAS and remove the chance of future human exposure.
This study employs a boron-doped diamond (BDD) on niobium (Nb) electrode stack to investigate the role that current density has in the electrochemical destruction of PFAS in a complex solution matrix. The electrode stack was comprised of two anode plates sandwiched in between three cathode plates. This entire stack was then placed into a constantly stirred reactor comprised of 750 ml of solution. A constant current density of 50 mA/cm2 was investigated initially for a total of 12 hours. In order to save on energy consumption, further studies used a combined current density approach. This involved applying 50 mA/cm2 for only the first hour of the test before lowering the current density to 5 mA/cm2 for the remaining 11 hours. Multiple literature IX regenerate solutions were simulated and spiked with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS).3–6 Multiple samples were taken over the course of the oxidation experiments and sent for PFAS analysis using the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) modified 537 method. Additional process parameters were monitored over time including the pH, voltage, temperature, and the reduction in chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonia depending on the simulated regenerate solution used. Further analysis showed a significant reduction in energy with a minimal additional amount of PFAS remaining in the initial combined current density study compared to the traditional constant current density approach.
1. Woodard, S., Berry, J. & Newman, B. Ion exchange resin for PFAS removal and pilot test comparison to GAC. Remediation
27, 19–27 (2017).
2. Liang, S., Pierce, R. “David”, Lin, H., Chiang, S. Y. D. & Huang, Q. “Jack”. Electrochemical oxidation of PFOA and PFOS in concentrated waste streams. Remediation
28, 127–134 (2018).
3. Conte, L., Falletti, L., Zaggia, A. & Milan, M. Polyfluorinated Organic Micropollutants Removal from Water by Ion Exchange and Adsorption. in CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS
43, (2015).
4. Zaggia, A., Conte, L., Falletti, L., Fant, M. & Chiorboli, A. Use of strong anion exchange resins for the removal of perfluoroalkylated substances from contaminated drinking water in batch and continuous pilot plants. Water Res.
91, 137–146 (2016).
5. Chularueangaksorn, P., Tanaka, S., Fujii, S. & Kunacheva, C. Regeneration and reusability of anion exchange resin used in perfluorooctane sulfonate removal by batch experiments. J. Appl. Polym. Sci.
130, 884–890 (2013).
6. Deng, S., Yu, Q., Huang, J. & Yu, G. Removal of perfluorooctane sulfonate from wastewater by anion exchange resins: Effects of resin properties and solution chemistry. Water Res.
44, 5188–5195 (2010).