Degradation of Low Concentrated Perfluorinated Compounds (PFCs) from Water Samples Using Non-Thermal Atmospheric Plasma (NTAP)

Vojislav Jovicic, Muhammad Jehanzaib Khan, Ana Zbogar-Rasic, Nataliia Fedorova, Alexander Poser, Peter Swoboda and Antonio Delgado
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Vojislav Jovicic: Institute of Fluid Mechanics (LSTM), Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU), 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Muhammad Jehanzaib Khan: Institute of Fluid Mechanics (LSTM), Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU), 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Ana Zbogar-Rasic: Institute of Fluid Mechanics (LSTM), Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU), 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Nataliia Fedorova: Institute of Fluid Mechanics (LSTM), Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU), 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Alexander Poser: R&H Umwelt GmbH, 90471 Nuremberg, Germany
Peter Swoboda: R&H Umwelt GmbH, 90471 Nuremberg, Germany
Antonio Delgado: Institute of Fluid Mechanics (LSTM), Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU), 91058 Erlangen, Germany

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 5, 1-14

Abstract: Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are manmade chemicals, containing the covalent C-F bond, which is among the strongest chemical bonds known to organic chemistry. Abundant use of these chemicals contaminates air, water, and soil around the world. Despite recent initiatives and legal regulations set to reduce their omnipresence, conventional water purification processes are either inefficient or very expensive, especially for low PFC contamination levels. This research is focused on the non-thermal atmospheric plasma (NTAP) decomposition of very low concentrations (<1 µg/L) of PFCs (especially perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS)), present in the wastewater produced during the process of PFCs removal from contaminated soil. The efficiency of the decomposition process was investigated for air, oxygen, and nitrogen plasma, with exposure times of 1–10 min and different plasma nozzle- and reactor sizes. Experiments demonstrated that the NTAP treatment is an efficient alternative method for degradation of more than 50% of the initial PFC concentration in the water samples, in less than 200 s. The final concentration of PFC showed strong dependency on the tested parameters. The treatment effect showed to be strongly non-linear with time, followed by the reduction of the pH-value of the treated sample, which might present a limiting factor for further PFC decomposition.

Keywords: non-thermal atmospheric plasma; Perfluorinated compound (PFC) removal; wastewater treatment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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