Recent progress in adsorptive removal of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from water/wastewater

Abstract

Due to chemical and physiological inertness and wide usage in nearly every aspect of our daily life, per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are now ubiquitous in the environment, including drinking water sources. As most biological and chemical destruction methods have so far shown limited efficiencies, adsorption, a simple and cost-effective treatment, is widely adopted for the removal of PFAS from water/wastewater. This paper aims to review the recent progress in PFAS adsorption using various adsorbents. The performance of different types of adsorbents, including the traditional carbonaceous materials and resins as well as the newly-synthesized minerals, biomaterials, and polymers, in PFAS removal was summarized. Furthermore, the adsorption characteristics and mechanisms were critically reviewed. Real-life adsorption applications (large-scale setups, adsorption-involved treatment trains and point-of-use/point-of-entry systems) were also examined. Learned lessons, current challenges and recommendations on future research were provided regarding results of tests in real environmental matrices, pilot and/or field scale studies of promising newly-developed adsorbents, and the improvement of the removal of alternative PFAS (mostly short-chained ones).

Graphical abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Adsorption
• environmental matrices
• large-scale testing
• PFAS
• short-chained compounds

Acknowledgments

C. T. Vu acknowledges financial support from the Alabama Graduate Research Scholars Program (GRSP) funded through the Alabama Commission for Higher Education and administered by the Alabama EPSCoR.

Additional information

Funding

This study was partially supported by the US Environmental Protection Agency through the EPA-P3 Grant SU83981001.