Coagulation/flocculation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water treatment

0560376 - ÚH 2023 RIV NO eng C - Conference Paper (international conference)
Prokopová, Michaela - Fialová, Kateřina - Čermáková, Lenka - Semerád, Jaroslav - Pivokonský, Martin
Coagulation/flocculation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water treatment.
Proceedings Water safety conference 2022. Narvik: IWA, 2022.
[The 2022 IWA International conference for water safety. Narvik (NO), 22.06.2022-24.06.2022]
Institutional support: RVO:67985874 ; RVO:61388971
Keywords : perfluorinated organic substances * polyfluorinated organic substances * coagulation * floccutalion * drinking water
OECD category: Environmental sciences (social aspects to be 5.7); Water resources (MBU-M)

A group of pollutants denoted as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), that were detected in both surface and groundwater, currently comprises more than 4,700 identified compounds (Lim, 2019). Their structure consists of a per- or polyfluorinated hydrocarbon chain forming the hydrophobic part of the molecule and a functional group that forms a hydrophilic part. Depending on the type of a functional group, PFAS can be divided into sulfonates, carboxylates, sulfonamides, phosphonates, acrylates, acetates and other minor groups. These substances are nowadays ubiquitous in the environment. In general, they are considered highly persistent in nature. However, under suitable environmental conditions, some of them may degrade due to the presence of highly polar functional groups. The intermediates or final products of the first degradation step are less or non-polar. These are not readily (bio) degradable and can accumulate in the environment. Current technologies are not able to remove PFAS from drinking water efficiently (Rahman et al., 2014). This work investigates coagulation/flocculation of selected PFAS (perfluorooctanoic acid – PFOA, perfluorooctane sulfonate – PFOS, pentafluorobenzoic acid – PFBA, perfluorobutane sulfonate – PFBS) with an aim to optimize the process for maximum PFAS removal and to describe the coagulation mechanisms.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0333305