Scientists have discovered a new way to break apart 'forever chemicals', the notoriously stubborn pollutants that taint our waterways and threaten public health.
The news of a simple, low-energy way to degrade some, but not all, forever chemicals came in August from researchers at Northwestern University.
An alternative method for supercharging the destruction of the chemicals in water has been reported by scientists.
These harmful substances are broken down using UV light and hydrogen gas.
They've found their way into everything from fire-fighting foam to cosmetics due to their long-term use as a non-stick and waterproof agent. They have been found in high levels in drinking water around the world and have been linked to health problems.
They might be coming unstuck if this continues.
A senior researcher on the team who developed the new patent-pending process which doesn't generate any undesirable byproducts says the technology is very sustainable.
There are two parts to the problem of the PFAS. It's easier to remove material from environmental resources than it is to clean up contaminated soils.
It is more difficult to destroy the concentrated PFAS chemicals without creating any other harmful substances. It's expensive to burn off PFAS at high temperatures, but incinerating products containing it could spread it further.
There is a new process coming in. The water is ionized by bubbling hydrogen gas through contaminated water. The bonds holding the chemicals together are attacked by hydrated electrons.
Chemical reactions that have been too slow to be useful in industrial settings can be sped up with the use of high-energy, short- wavelength UV light.
The researchers only tested their method on small volumes of tap water spiked with PFOA and PFOS.
The pollutants were degraded in these test batches using less electrical energy than in the past.
Within 45 minutes of water treatment, hydrogen gas and UV light degraded 95 percent of PFOA and PFOS chemicals. The method still needs to be improved because the chemicals are dangerous.
Researchers have tried zapping the chemicals before. The US Air Force has been working with a team at New York'sClarkson University to treat the contaminated water.
Free-roaming electrons and positive ion atoms make up the ionized gas of plasm gas. In pilot tests of contaminated water reactor, it was possible to treat for up to 50 minutes degraded between 36 and 99 percent of the chemicals in the water.
We need to think about all the options on the table. There's not a one-size-fits-all solution to degrading forever chemicals according to a chemical engineer.
They think they can make their process more energy efficient by experimenting with other low-energy light sources and tweaking their set-up.
The major hurdle for other methods has been the inability to scale up from lab experiments with test tubes to real-world industrial applications.
"We are trying to make this technology versatile so that it can be used in a wide range of source waters." There have been promising results in the destruction of PFAS in both drinking water and industrial wastewater.
The paper was published in a journal.
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