Problems of forever chemicals in lives
For many decades we have been manufacturing household items using these PFAS, for various uses such waterproof clothing and non stick cookware, they can also be used in firefighting applications and have even been used un cosmetics.
Their nickname forever chemicals indicates that they persist for a very long time within our environment ecosystem. The main issues with them is that they find their way into drinking water supplies and as such can contaminate our very bodies, causing health problems and cancers.
Recently scientists have discovered a new method to break down the rather troublesome forever chemicals which pollute and contaminate all aspects of human lives, including water, soil, human body and blood stream.
Hopefully below new ways would be a valuable asset in the fight to deal with these long living materials.
New method of hydrogen gas and UV light to break down forever chemicals
Northwestern University researchers have discovered in August 2022 a new low energy consuming way to deal with certain forever chemicals.
It seems that some of these tightly bonded synthetic chemicals which normally require a huge amount of energy to degraded were susceptible to breaking down easily under particularly unexpected mild condition.
University of California Riverside scientists have now unveiled an alternative method to supercharge the destruction PFAS in water, using UV light and hydrogen gas the compounds can be broken down where they are found in drinking water supplies.
Haizhou Liu, who is a chemical engineer from University of California suggests that the new technology they have developed is very sustainable. He is one of senior researchers on the team responsible for this new patent pending tech that doesn’t produce any unwanted byproducts.
Realistically to solve the PFAS problem we need to be doing two things. First we must remove the material completely from environmental resources, which will involve filtering all our drinking water using carbon based filter.
Secondly, we must be more mindful of how we dispose of these concentrated PFAS, or the destruction of then must not produce any harmful byproducts that are subsequently released into the ecosystem.
It’s possible to burn PFAS at high temperatures, but the damage this can cause to the ecosystem isn’t the cleanest way of dealing with them.
The new process works by bubbling hydrogen gas through the contaminated water to ionise the H2O molecules. The hydrated electrons can then attack stronger bonds holding together the PFAS chemicals.
Applying a shortwave UV light into the water can also help speed up the reactions and help to accelerate the breakdown of the PFAS which in other cases would have taken place too slowly.
So far only smaller volumes of contaminated water have been tested by researchers(approximately 17 fluid oz) containing two types of forever chemicals, PFOA and PFOS.
Near complete and speedy degradation of these quantities has been achieved by researchers within test environments and with a lower energy demand nonetheless.
Hydrogen gas and UV light combined had a 95% degradation result of these PFOA and PFOS contaminated solutions over a short duration of 45 minutes.
Optimisation still needs to be done however as even very tiny levels of PFAS contamination of drinking water can present significant health dangers. It’s not first time zapping PFAS has been tried, however.
Liu says: “We are optimising it by trying to make this technology versatile for a wide range of PFAS contaminated source water. The technology has shown very promising results un the destruction of PFAS in both drinking water and different type of industrial wastewater.”
The researchers at University of California think they have some room to streamline the process however, by experimenting with other types of two energy light, and finding better ways of enhancing the diffusion of the hydrogen gas through water.
The need to scale up the tech is quite obvious if it is to become relevant, and applicable to a real world industrial process that will have a realistic impact.
New way of plasma reactors and argon gas to break down forever chemicals
Clarkson University conducted experiments to treat PFAS contaminated water in conjunction with the US Air Force. Plasma reactors and argon gas were used in that particular case.
Plasma gas is ionised, composed of free roaming molecules and positives ions. In the US Air Force experiments it was discovered that contaminated water in treatment via plasma reactor for a duration of 50 minutes had degraded between 36 and 99% fo the PFAS content, and some we decomposed faster.
The general consensus is that there’s not a one size-fits-all solution, said chemical engineer Selma Thagard of Clarkson University.
Source: the science alert
