SBIR-STTR Award

Due to release of industrial and landfill effluent into the environment, per- and polyfluorinated alkyl species (PFAS) have been accumulating in soil, sediment and groundwater, with subsequent absorption by living organisms. PFAS have the potential to cause multiple adverse health effects, including low birth weight, accelerated puberty, and cancer. Novel approaches for in situ degradation of PFAS in contaminated soils, sediments and groundwaters are required to facilitate efforts to both cleanup and prevent widespread dispersion of these hazardous chemicals. The proposed program would develop an electrokinetic approach for locally concentrating PFAS in soil, in tandem with an electrocatalytic technology for PFAS degradation at that localized site, through the application of pulsed electric field processing. An in-situ electrochemical PFAS remediation technology is anticipated to be readily scalable, efficient, and low-cost, and should find significant market demand. The currently established method for large-scale PFAS remediation to below the 70 parts-per-trillion EPA lifetime health advisory level is activated carbon adsorption, which is extremely costly, generates a PFAS-contaminated waste stream that must be further treated, and is of limited utility for soil-bound PFAS. The flexibility, scalability, and low cost of the proposed technology are anticipated to be significantly favorable as compared to state-of-the-art methods.

Recent research has demonstrated that per- and polyfluorinated alkyl species (PFAS) are highly refractory and bio-accumulative when released to the environment, and have the potential to cause numerous adverse health effects. Development of novel approaches for extraction and destruction of PFAS in soil plumes would greatly facilitate efforts to remediate these contaminated sites and alleviate the public health threat they represent. The electrochemical activity of PFAS has already been shown in the literature, provided that electrodes with sufficiently high water electrolysis overpotentials are used. The proposed Phase II SBIR program would extend the Phase I efforts that demonstrated the feasibility of pulsed-waveform electrocatalysis to destroy PFAS efficiently and cost-effectively. Phase II would identify optimized operating parameters and develop an improved understanding of process performance on destruction of various PFAS of concern and of the effects of various soil-derived electrolyte constituents (e.g., chloride ion) on the PFAS destruction performance, for both in-situ and ex-situ treatment protocols. The Phase II program would also make use of the data collected on electrokinetic transport of PFAS in soils to develop revised electrokinetics apparatus configurations and electrical potential programs to achieve rapid, efficient movement of PFAS in soil matrices. Numerous governmental and industry stakeholders have an express interest in mitigating PFAS in a variety of contexts, and the combination of electrokinetic and electrocatalytic technologies proposed in this Phase II program is anticipated to find significant market demand from these entities, as supported by the substantial commercialization team assembled for the Phase II program. Currently, the only method for large-scale PFAS remediation in soils to below the 70 parts-per-trillion EPA lifetime health advisory level is large-scale excavation and extraction, followed by activated carbon adsorption, which is prohibitively costly by multiple orders of magnitude and generates a PFAS-contaminated waste stream that must be further treated. The flexibility, scalability, and low cost of the proposed synergistic technology package are anticipated to provide an attractive means for remediation of PFAS in soils.