(173u) Simultaneous PFAS Mineralization and Sorbent Regeneration Using PFAS Mineralizing Molten Salts (PMMS)

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a group of synthetic organofluoride compounds that have generated public concern due to their adverse health effects and widespread persistence in the environment. Currently, PFAS-impacted wastewater streams are treated using conventional methods including filtration with granular activated carbon (GAC) and ion-exchange resins (IXR). While state-of-the-art physical adsorption methods are consistent and reliable for PFAS removal from water, these methods only transfer the PFAS from the water phase to the adsorbent material. This does not eliminate the contaminant and further results in secondary pollution. There is no existing widely implemented commercial technology for treating and regenerating these spent adsorbent materials. PSI’s solution is to create a scalable, safe and economical method to treat PFAS-impacted adsorbent material that simultaneously mineralizes PFAS compounds and regenerates the adsorbent material under solvent free conditions using a novel PFAS Mineralizing Molten Salt (PMMS) platform. PMMS achieves high defluorination efficiencies by using a low-temperature molten salt reactor (MSR). The key innovation of the PMMS system is the application of a cost-effective molten salt eutectic mixture that has a low melting point (170 °C). The PMMS system concept allows for safe operation at ambient pressure, is readily scalable, and has very low treatment costs due to the inexpensive nature of the reagents and use of commercial off the shelf processing equipment. This poster describes the feasibility and preliminary experimental results from the PMMS system.