Rapid degradation of PFAS in aqueous solutions by reverse vortex flow gliding arc plasma

Abstract

Gliding arc plasma discharge is an energy-efficient treatment technology for a broad range of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances in water.

Occurrence and removal of poly/perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants

“…Different oxidative species with different degradation efficiencies can be formed during plasma water treatment based on the type of applied discharge. For example, in some cases, reactive nitrogen species (RNS), including peroxynitrite and peroxynitrate, can also be generated (Lewis et al 2020). For pollutant degradation plasma is usually generated through a high voltage between two electrodes: one grounded electrode within or contacting the polluted water and one high voltage electrode.…”

“…For pollutant degradation plasma is usually generated through a high voltage between two electrodes: one grounded electrode within or contacting the polluted water and one high voltage electrode. Up until now, several attempts have been made for the utilization of plasma to degrade PFAS from synthetic and groundwater samples (Yasuoka et al 2011;Takeuchi et al 2013;Stratton et al 2017;Singh et al 2019;Lewis et al 2020) using different types of electrical discharge plasma reactors with different electrode configurations. Studies investigating reactive species generated during plasma treatment show that hydroxyl and other superoxide radicals, which are characteristically the main plasma-based oxidizing agents, do not play an important role in PFOA degradation.…”

“…In addition, numerous PFOA-and PFOS-related intermediates at trace amounts and gaseous byproducts in small amounts have also been identified where defluorination ratios ranged between 58 and 77%. Those identified by-products, including short-chain PFCAs, suggest a stepwise degradation of the PFAS molecule, following degradation of perfluoroalkyl radicals, intermediates, and perfluoro alcohols/ketones (Singh et al 2019;Lewis et al 2020).…”

Functionalized bio‐adsorbents for removal of perfluoroalkyl substances: A perspective

“…These techniques include electrochemical oxidation (Chaplin, 2020;Nzeribe et al, 2019), plasma (Hayashi et al, 2015;Nzeribe et al, 2019;Singh et al, 2019), electron beam (Londhe et al, 2021), and activated persulfate (Nzeribe et al, 2019), all exhibiting promising potential to degrade long-chain PFAS, such as PFOA and PFOS. When the degradation of short-chain PFAS has been studied, the degradation efficiencies were poor, compared to their long-chain counterparts (Barisci & Suri, 2020, 2021Lewis et al, 2020;Londhe et al, 2021;Nzeribe et al, 2019;Wang, Nickelsen, et al, 2020). However, these techniques are generally energy-intensive and not cost-effective except for the remediation of some heavily contaminated solutions.…”

Chemistry, abundance, detection and treatment of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in water: a review

“…Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) compounds and their salts have a broad variety of applications in both consumer products and industrial processes (Lewis et al 2020;Pourehie and Saien 2020). In many cases, PFAS are still being applied as polymerization agents in fluoropolymer materials production (Ateia et al 2019).…”