Destruction of PFAS in synergistic Reductive and Oxidative processes for their complete mineralization in drinking water (DestructPRO)

Objetivo

DestructPRO is an innovative and ambitious project to completely mineralize per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water sources by developing a synergistic technology of advanced reduction and oxidation processes (ARP and AOP). The European Commission (EC) has put a limit of 0.5 µg/L for sum of all PFAS concentration and 0.1 µg/L for sum of 20 specific PFAS concentration in drinking water (EU DWD 2020/2184). Existing treatments for PFAS remediation employ adsorption or membrane-based systems, which require post-treatment or have disposal requirements. Therefore, degradative technologies need to be evolved. ARP and AOP techniques have shown promising potential in degrading PFAS, however, individually, both methods show limitations in completely defluorinating them. Early evidence suggests that applying AOP after ARP can lead to enhanced defluorination. Therefore, the focus of the project is to develop a sequential ARP-AOP platform for mineralizing PFAS using UV or plasma-based treatment. The study will provide i) deep mechanistic insights of the degradation pathways of six PFAS (selected based on EU priorities) using advanced analytical mass spectrometric tools, and ii) assess the extent of PFAS mineralization during UV and plasma-based processes. The study then compares the UV and plasma-based treatments with respect to novel criteria- defluorination efficiency, energy consumed per bonded fluorine release, and scope (stability and robustness of the system, in light of circular economy. The work will be carried out at the host’s lab- Hydrosciences Montpellier (HSM), which is equipped with state-of-the-art analytical instruments for PFAS quantification. The latter phase of the project (during secondment) at Fraunhofer IGB, will test the optimized treatment technology in an industrial setting to ensure real-world applicability. The project aims to tackle PFAS pollution in drinking water, aligning with EU priorities and UN SDGs (3,6,9,11).