Spent Media Management Pathways for PFAS Treatment Applications

Removing PFAS from water is increasingly needed to comply with evolving regulations in multiple industries, including drinking water production, municipal and industrial wastewater treatment, and contaminated site remediation. This change is driving increased use of adsorptive media to remove PFAS from drinking water. Granular activated carbon (GAC) and anion exchange resin (AER) are the two predominantly applied media used to separate PFAS from water. Both technologies produce PFAS-laden spent media that requires downstream management, with significant operating costs and regulatory uncertainty. Once GAC or AER media is spent, it can be physically changed out from treatment vessels or regenerated in place. Spent media can be managed through existing offerings like incineration or GAC reactivation or through emerging offerings like supercritical water oxidation (SCWO). Spent regenerant can be recovered and reused, with concentrated PFAS-laden liquid managed through offsite incineration or emerging PFAS destruction methods. Both offsite GAC reactivation and onsite regeneration of either AER or GAC have the potential to reduce operating costs and energy use relative to single-use media procurement and disposal.