There is a growing recognition that PFAS is present in water systems, groundwater, and drinking water across the country. PFAS are building up in our bodies through our diets, where they can cause disease-related illnesses like high cholesterol, thyroid cancers, and kidney stones. Industries are becoming increasingly aware of the health risks associated with PFAS exposure due to increased exposure limits by governmental agencies.
A large part of the results of this increased awareness is the development of treatment systems designed to deal with PFAS in industrial waste streams, groundwater, and drinking water. The following discussion details these PFAS treatment developments.
The Early Years: An Unregulated Problem
Very little was known about these chemicals until the late 1990’s when another class of perfluoroalkyl chemicals was found to be harmful to humans. These chemicals were named per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS for short. Since then, many studies have concluded that PFAS compounds harm human health, including liver damage, hormone disruption, and other diseases. PFAS are present in food, water, and the environment.
In response to the findings from these early studies, PFAS has been used by several industries. It is unsure at this time if these PFAS compounds are safe, but since they are in use, there is a need for an appropriate treatment system to deal with them.
What Is a Treatment System?
The characteristics of a PFAS treatment system by Membrane Systems Australia include a collection of wastewaters containing PFAS compounds, basic chemical treatments, and additional process steps to remove unwanted chemicals from the treated wastewater.
Most likely, two methods will be used in treating process wastewater: Ultrafiltration (UF) or membrane separation. UF systems are the most common type in use today, but membrane separation is also used. UF and membrane separation both involve the process of using membranes to separate chemicals from their wastewater.
Some common UF design parameters include capacity (the amount of wastewater that can be treated each day); minimum pressure drop along the entire length of a filtration system; and maximum specific conductance (the product of concentration and flow rate – i.e., the amount of water that flows for a given amount of wastewater passing through). The physical design parameters required to ensure PFAS do not build up are based on these basic requirements.
Why Is It Important to Consider PFAS Treatment?
In the last few years, there has been a significant amount of attention on PFAS as a serious health threat. As a result, many governmental agencies have issued regulatory limits for these chemicals.
In response to the need to comply with these regulatory limits, many industries are striving to find ways of treating their wastewater without adding to solids loads, providing additional treatment capacity, or increasing the influent flow rate by more than 10%, according to US EPA. Industrial wastewater treatment systems that deal with PFAS will not typically add significant PFAS to the solid streams and will only require a process to meet the UF or membrane separation performance parameters.
Conclusion
PFAS treatment is a popular waste treatment option because it is readily available and relatively easy to use. With these factors in mind, cities, businesses, and other structures need to consider the various releases of PFAS into the environment. Therefore, proper notification, monitoring, and mitigation will help control and prevent any adverse effects caused by these products.
