A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign study is the first to describe an electrochemical strategy to capture, concentrate and destroy mixture...
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network
A previous U. of I. study showed that short- and long-chain PFAS can be removed from water using electrochemically driven adsorption, referred to as electrosorption, but this method is ineffective for ultra-short-chain molecules because of their small size and different chemical properties. The new study, led by Illinois chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Xiao Su, combines a desalination filtration technology, called redox electrodialysis, with electrosorption in a single device to address the problems associated with capturing the complete PFAS size spectrum.
The study findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.
“We decided upon redox electrodialysis because the very short-chain PFAS behave a lot like salt ions in water,” Su said. “The challenge was to produce an efficient, effective electrodialysis system to capture the ultra-short-chain PFAS, have it work in tandem with the electrosorption process for the longer-chain PFAS, destroy them with electrochemical oxidation, and make it happen within a single device.”
Su’s team has previously demonstrated highly efficient electrodialysis devices that remove various non-PFAS contaminants. However, the process requires ion-exchange membranes, which are expensive and quickly fouled by PFAS molecules.
SOURCE: https://www.technologynetworks.com/applied-sciences/news/new-technique-can-capture-and-destroy-pfas-in-water-393054
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Taxonomy
- PFAS