Description du projet
Éliminer les composés perfluorés de l’eau potable et des eaux souterraines
Les composés perfluorés forment un groupe de produits chimiques toxiques qui subsistent dans l’environnement pendant de longues périodes. Ces éléments chimiques produits par l’homme ont été détectés dans l’eau potable et dans les eaux souterraines, ce qui suscite de graves préoccupations pour la santé humaine. Jusqu’à présent, les procédés d’oxydation avancée, impliquant notamment les réactifs de Fenton, l’ozone, la lumière ultraviolette ou les catalyseurs, n’ont pas donné de résultats très fructueux en matière d’élimination de ces produits chimiques ou de réduction de leurs concentrations. Le projet PFCsByPlasCat, financé par l’UE, testera une autre option de traitement connue sous le nom de plasmas non thermiques, qui produit simultanément plusieurs espèces réactives. Divers nanocatalyseurs seront testés, parmi lesquels l’oxyde de graphène dopé au bore, afin de maximiser l’efficacité du nouveau procédé hybride plasma-catalyseur. Des échantillons réels d’eaux souterraines contaminées seront testés pour valider le processus.
Objectif
The extensive use of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in many industrial/commercial applications, as surfactants, emulsifiers, etc., and their high chemical stability are responsible for their ubiquitous presence in the environment. Specifically, the contamination of groundwater and drinking water supplies by perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) is raising great concern as more data on PFCs toxicity in humans and wildlife is becoming available. Thus, a parallel surge in monitoring campaigns and in the search for innovative water treatment technologies for PFCs is required. Since PFCs are highly resistant to degradation by standard chemical and biological processes, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are being considered and, including Fenton, ozone and UV irradiation with catalysts, applied so far with limited success. Among innovative AOPs, air non-thermal plasmas (NTP), which produce several reactive species at a time, have been recently tested for the treatment of PFOA/PFOS yielding promising results. The proposed research aims to advance the state of art by developing an innovative treatment process for PFCs in which NTP is applied in combination with novel boron-doped graphene oxide (B-GO) nano photocatalysts. The catalysts synthesized and characterized by the Researcher will be tested on prepared solutions of PFOA and PFOS using various NTP reactors which are available in the beneficiary laboratory. The best catalyst-reactor combination will thus be identified; conditions and parameters will be optimized to maximize the synergy between plasma and catalyst and the efficiency of the novel hybrid plas-cat process. Real samples of contaminated groundwater will be tested to verify the process applicability to complex matrices. For excellence of research, basic guidelines will be drawn and disseminated for implementing an efficient hybrid plas-cat process in view of auspicable scaling-up and technology transfer to stakeholders.
Champ scientifique
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwater treatment processesdrinking water treatment processes
- natural scienceschemical sciencescatalysisphotocatalysis
- engineering and technologynanotechnologynano-materialstwo-dimensional nanostructuresgraphene
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistry
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistrymetalloids
Mots‑clés
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinateur
35122 Padova
Italie