<b>Background/Objectives</b>. Polyfluorinated and perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) are emerging as high-priority and high-profile contaminants. PFAS contamination is widespread, and many communities need large scale treatment systems to treat drinking water supplies for PFAS. However, PFAS are highly water soluble, have low volatility, and are difficult to treat. Granular activated carbon (GAC) effectively adsorbs long-chain PFAS compounds from water, but shorter-chain and branched PFAS have been shown to quickly break through GAC. Carbon change-outs require either virgin media or off-site regeneration and limit the sustainability of this technology. Synthetic media (ion-exchange resin) technology has shown significant promise for treating a broad suite of PFAS. Synthetic media can be regenerated on-site and reused, showing potential for a more sustainable adsorption technology. This paper describes the design and operation of PFAS treatability tests and an on-site pilot test using synthetic media to treat groundwater from the former Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Test objectives were to: (1) demonstrate treatment performance and regeneration potential of various synthetic media; (2) complete a pilot test comparing GAC and synthetic media at Pease; and (3) develop a design and cost estimate for full-scale treatment of a PFAS groundwater plume. At bench scale, two of the three resins removed all 12 of the analyzed PFAS compounds from groundwater to non-detect for the entire 14-day loading cycle. Regeneration using high-concentration solvents completely restored PFAS removal capacity for one of the resins. Alternative, non-flammable regenerant solutions were less successful at removing PFAS, but restored adsorption capacity by removing other anions from the resin. Regeneration trials are ongoing. Pilot scale results will be available in January 2016.

Sustainable removal of poly- and perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFASs) from groundwater using synthetic media

251st National Meeting (2016)

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