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Drinking water nanofiltration with concentrate foam fractionation—A novel approach for removal of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)
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Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are recognized as persistent pollutants that have been found in drinking water sources on a global scale. Semi-permeable membrane treatment processes such as reverse osmosis and nanofiltration (NF) have been shown effective at removing PFAS, however, disposal of PFAS laden concentrate is problematic. Without treatment of the concentrate, PFAS is released into the environment. The present work examined a novel PFAS removal scheme for drinking water using NF filtration with treatment of the resulting NF concentrate via foam fractionation (FF) with and without co-surfactants. The NF-pilot removed 98% of PFAS from AFFF contaminated groundwater producing permeate with 1.4 ng L−1 total PFAS. Using FF resulted in ∑PFAS removal efficiency of 90% from the NF concentrate and with improved removal of 94% with addition of cationic co-surfactant. The resulting foamate composed approximately 2% of the NF feedwater volume and contained greater than 3000 ng L−1 PFAS or 41 times greater than the NF feedwater. Addition of the cationic co-surfactant to the FF process resulted in increased removal efficiency of the shorter chain PFAS, specifically 37% for PFPeA, 9% for PFHxA, and 34% for PFBS thus attaining 59%, 99% and 96% removal efficiency, respectively. PFOA, PFPeS, PFHxS, PFOS each attained 99% FF removal with or without co-surfactant addition.
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McCleaf et al. reported total PFAS removal efficiencies of 90% and 94% from the NF concentrate using foam fractionation without and with addition of cationic co-surfactant, respectively.
“Also, total PFAS removal efficiencies of 90% and 94% were reported from the NF concentrate using foam fractionation without and with addition of cationic co-surfactant, respectively [63].”
From A Mini-Review of Full-Scale Drinking Water Treatment Plants for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Removal: Possible Solutions and Future Directions (2025) · cites this paper as [63]
McCleaf et al. reported 98% removal of PFAS from contaminated groundwater (permeate with 1.4 ng/L total PFAS) using NF-pilot combined with foam fractionation for treatment of NF concentrate.
“McCleaf et al. [63] used a combination of NF (for PFAS removal from contaminated groundwater) with foam fractionation (for treatment of NF concentrate) and reported 98% removal of PFAS from contaminated groundwater (permeate with 1.4 ng/L total PFAS) using NF-pilot.”
From A Mini-Review of Full-Scale Drinking Water Treatment Plants for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Removal: Possible Solutions and Future Directions (2025) · cites this paper as [63]
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Jafarinejad, S. (2025) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su17020451 · Cited by 27
Metadata
- Authors
- McCleaf, P., Stefansson, W., & Ahrens, L.
- Affiliations
- Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SE)
- Corresponding author
- McCleaf, Philip
- Venue
- Water Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2023-04
- Volume
- 232
- Pages
- 119688
- ISSN
- 0043-1354 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4319033747
- Cited by
- 89
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 34 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 7.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Water Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Epsilon Open Archive (Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet biblioteket (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences)) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances research
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Membrane Separation Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Chemical Analysis and Environmental Impact
- Keywords
- per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS removal, nanofiltration, drinking water treatment, cosurfactants, cationic surfactants, PFOS, PFPeA, perfluorohexanoic acid, PFBS, perfluoropolyether, PFHxS, short-chain PFAS
- MeSH terms
- Fluorocarbons, Surface-Active Agents, Water Pollutants, Chemical, Groundwater, Drinking Water
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