Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are emerging environmental pollutants. Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) are the two primary PFC contaminants that are widely found in water, particularly in groundwater. This study compared the adsorption behaviors of PFOS and PFOA on several commercially available adsorbents in water. The tested adsorbents include granular activated carbon (GAC: Filtrasorb 400), powdered activated carbon, multi-walled carbon nanotube (MCN), double-walled carbon nanotube, anion-exchange resin (AER: IRA67), non-ion-exchange polymer, alumina, and silica. The study demonstrated that adsorption is an effective technique for the removal of PFOS/PFOA from aqueous solutions. The kinetic tests showed that the adsorption onto AER reaches equilibrium rapidly (2 h), while it takes approximately 4 and 24 h to reach equilibrium for MCN and GAC, respectively. In terms of adsorption capacity, AER and GAC were identified as the most effective adsorbents to remove PFOS/PFOA from water. Furthermore, MCN, AER, and GAC proved to have high PFOS/PFOA removal efficiencies (≥98%). AER (IRA67) and GAC (Filtrasorb 400) were thus identified as the most promising adsorbents for treating PFOS/PFOA-contaminated groundwater at mg L−1 level based on their equilibrium times, adsorption capacities, removal efficiencies, and associated costs.
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Research Article|
November 08 2014
Comparative study on adsorption of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) by different adsorbents in water
Yuan Yao;
1Emergencies Science and Technology, Environment Canada, 335 River Road, Ottawa, ON K1A 0H3, Canada
E-mail: yuan.yao@ec.gc.ca
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Konstantin Volchek;
Konstantin Volchek
1Emergencies Science and Technology, Environment Canada, 335 River Road, Ottawa, ON K1A 0H3, Canada
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Carl E. Brown;
Carl E. Brown
1Emergencies Science and Technology, Environment Canada, 335 River Road, Ottawa, ON K1A 0H3, Canada
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Adam Robinson;
Adam Robinson
2Maxxam Analytics, 6740 Campobello Road, Mississauga, ON L5N 2L8, Canada
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Terry Obal
Terry Obal
2Maxxam Analytics, 6740 Campobello Road, Mississauga, ON L5N 2L8, Canada
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Water Sci Technol (2014) 70 (12): 1983–1991.
Article history
Received:
April 24 2014
Accepted:
October 27 2014
Citation
Yuan Yao, Konstantin Volchek, Carl E. Brown, Adam Robinson, Terry Obal; Comparative study on adsorption of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) by different adsorbents in water. Water Sci Technol 1 December 2014; 70 (12): 1983–1991. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2014.445
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