Protein Sorbents for PFAS-Contaminated Water Treatment: Focused Sorption Kinetics, Protein Degradation, and Thermal Regeneration Testing
Abstract
This project aimed to (1) quantify kinetics of PFAS sorption to select proteins, which is needed to assess viability of protein sorbents to effectively treat AFFF-contaminated groundwater under realistic treatment train conditions, (2) assess protein stability and sorption performance over time under groundwater treatment-relevant conditions, and finally (3) investigate thermal regeneration of the protein sorbents and post-regeneration sorption effectiveness. Detecting and quantifying sorption at low PFAS concentrations during this one year follow-on effort proved challenging, suggesting a pre-concentration step would be needed for current suite of PFAS and proteins tested. Mammalian protein sorbents were not stable under ambient conditions for extended time; microbial- and plant-derived proteins may hold promise. Surface plasmon residence-determined binding kinetics and affinity for PFAS-protein pairs reported herein constitute a significant contribution to science.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 30, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1182146
Entities
People
- C. Heron
- C. Ng
- H. Smaili
- Jeffrey J. Field
- L. C. Moores
- M. Michalsen
- P. U. Fernando
Organizations
- United States Army Corps of Engineers