Arjun Venkatesan
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has funded nine fundamental research projects to develop new strategies to remediate PFAS in the environment, one of which is based at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS). PFAS or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are toxic pollutants that are very difficult to treat and that persist and accumulate in soil, water and living organisms, which can lead to health problems.
Last year, the NSF announced a special funding focus on new science and technology to treat and remediate PFAS to improve and protect public and environmental health, called “ERASE PFAS”. The extreme chemical stability of PFAS is an attribute that has led to its widespread use in food packaging, non-stick pans, anti-stain fabrics, electronics, fire-fighting foams, and many other commercial applications. However, once PFAS gets into the environment, that stability becomes a problem. The chemicals are very resistant to degradation and largely insensitive to conventional water treatment processes such as municipal drinking water treatment.
The SoMAS project “Understanding the surface-active properties of PFAS for improved removal through bubbling water treatment processes”, selected as part of the ERASE PFAS program, is also headed by research assistant Arjun K. Venkatesan Associate Director, Drinking Water Initiatives, New York State Center for Clean Water Technology.
“In this project, we propose a technology that uses simple air bubbles to trap PFAS and remove it from the water,” explains Venkatesan. “PFAS tend to accumulate on the surface of the air bubbles, and therefore we will provide the first information about the structure and distribution of these PFAS molecules at the air-water interface (or through advanced characterization techniques (X-ray synchrotron at Brookhaven National Laboratory) Surface of the bubbles). Once we have identified ideal conditions through controlled experimentation that will increase its accumulation on the bubble surface, we will develop a reactor that will produce nano-micro-sized air bubbles to capture and extract PFAS from contaminated water. “
The proposed approach is extremely simple to use and offers great cost benefits to water utilities who want to upgrade their systems to treat PFAS.
Read the full NSF press release
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