Energy-efficient removal of PFOA and PFOS in water using electrocoagulation with an air-cathode

Electrocoagulation (EC) with a zinc anode demonstrated promising results to remove perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) from an aqueous solution. However, the energy requirement for EC is usually very high due to water electrolysis or aeration. This study aims to reduce energy consumption using an air-cathode in EC (ACEC) to supply oxygen electron acceptor without aeration for attenuating PFOA/PFOS in this new configuration. For the high PFOA concentration (0.25 mM), ACEC with 45 min of the reaction time exhibited an excellent PFOA removal (99.8 ± 0.3% removal) comparable to an EC with aeration (EC-aeration, 100% removal) while achieving much less energy consumption (0.14 kWh/m³). For the low PFOA concentration (0.1 μM), only 41.1 ± 11.6% was removed by the ACEC due to the low concentration gradient for adsorption. EC-aeration achieved higher PFOA removal (81.9 ± 15.1%) for the low PFOA concentration, possibly because air bubbles floated PFOA to the water surface, thereby concentrating PFOA. The PFOS removals in the ACEC and EC-aeration (76.4-88.5%) at the high concentration (0.25 mM) were lower than PFOA due tentatively to its micelle formation. However, PFOS was removed better than PFOA at the low concentration (0.1 μM) due to its higher hydrophobicity.