New filtration technologies could absorb ‘forever chemicals’ at ‘ultrafast’ rate.
Researchers say developments could greatly improve pollution control. #ClimateChange
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Wow, @climatenewsnow! This is a breakthrough! Thanks for posting this!
"Granular activated carbon, reverse osmosis and ion exchange are among the current filtration technologies being used, and they work by absorbing PFAS in water. However, the chemicals caught in the filter have to be stored in hazardous waste facilities or destroyed in a thermal process using high heat, which produces toxic byproducts or just breaks the PFAS down into smaller PFAS.
"The new process works by soaking up and concentrating PFAS at high levels, meaning it is non-thermal as the chemicals can be destroyed without using high temperatures, according to Michael Wong, director of Rice University’s Water Institute, a PFAS research centre that developed the new technologies.
"The LDH material is similar to those previously used, but copper atoms have replaced some aluminium ones, he said, so the positively charged material attracts and absorbs a broad array of negatively charged PFAS.
" 'It just soaks it in to the order of 100 times faster than other materials that are out there,' Mr Wong told The Guardian."