Regeneration of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance-laden granular activated carbon using a solvent based technology

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large class of chemicals widely used for many commercial and industrial applications and have resulted in contamination at sites across globally. Pump-and-treat systems, groundwater extraction, and ex situ treatment using granular activated carbon (GAC) are being implemented, either in full or pilot scale, to treat PFAS-impacted groundwater and drinking water. The only current method of regenerating spent GAC is to reactivate it at temperatures greater than 1000 °C, which requires large amounts of energy and is quite expensive. This research focused on development and demonstration of an effective GAC regeneration technology using a solvent-based method for PFAS-laden GAC used in water treatment. Two different organic solvents (ethanol and isopropyl alcohol) with 0.5% and 1.0% ammonium hydroxide (NH₄OH) as a base additive were tested to determine the most effective regenerant solution to remove PFAS from the contaminated GAC. Based on column tests using laboratory-contaminated GAC with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanoic sulfonate (PFOS), the solvent-base mix (SBM) of ethanol with 0.5% NH₄OH was found to be the optimum performing regenerant solution. The GAC life span assessment showed that solvent-regenerated GAC performed similar to virgin GAC without losing its optimal performance of PFAS sorption. Further, the solvent-regenerated GAC showed optimal performance even after four cycles of solvent regenerations tested using the optimum SBM. Average percent removal in laboratory-contaminated GAC using the optimum SBM was 65% and 93% for PFOS and PFOA, respectively. Four field-spent GAC samples were also regenerated using the optimum SBM. Percent removal from these samples was found to be in range of 55%-68%. The type of GAC used, level of contamination and type of PFAS present, water type and quality, and the presence of co-contaminants may have influenced the removal capacity. Distillation experiments have shown that it is feasible to concentrate the spent solvent prior to disposal, which reduces the amount of PFAS-contaminated solvent waste produced in regeneration cycles.