(382d) Developing Technologies to Degrade and Separate Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) from Drinking Water Sources

The goal of this work is to develop a unique membrane-facilitated microwave irradiation process for the one-step degradation of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Perfluoro alkyl substances (PFAS) have been widely reported as being toxic to human health and the most recent EPA regulations set the health advisory levels at 0.004 ppt for PFOA. Depending on the source, PFOA levels in the feed stream could be very low (ppb/ppt); therefore, pre-concentrating the feed prior to a degradation process is necessary to ensure sensitivity. Our approach involves designing a zeolite-layered polymer membrane which will facilitate rapid concentration of PFOA at the membrane surface to enable the microwave-irradiated breakdown. The properties of the underlying membrane will be tailored to reject the degraded by-products of the reaction. Microwave irradiation is considered a more energy efficient process compared to traditional thermal processes that typically need temperature ranging from 700^oC -900^oC. However, identification of the microwave degradation byproducts could be challenging therefore, my current work is focused on analyzing the traditional thermal degradation process first, for the identification and quantification of PFOA byproducts. Using liquid chromatography and mass spectroscopy (LC-MS/MS), we aim to quantify the percent degradation and defluorination with respect to different process parameters (e.g temperature, time). Once the protocols for the traditional thermal process are identified, a similar methodology will be adapted for the microwave process. The proposed design avoids the need for multi-stage degradation and separation processes and enables continuous operation which in turn, could allow its integration in a wastewater treatment plant without significant infrastructure changes.