Removal of PFAS and pharmaceuticals from municipal wastewater using a novel β-cyclodextrin adsorbent over distinct contact times

IF 11.4 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENGINEERING, ENVIRONMENTAL

Water Research Pub Date : 2025-04-11 DOI:10.1016/j.watres.2025.123631

Emma F. Shapiro , Zhi-Wei Lin , Edwin Saavedra Cifuentes , Francisco J. Barajas-Rodriguez , Rosa Gwinn , William R. Dichtel , Aaron I. Packman

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Abstract

Conventional adsorbents applied in wastewater treatment are ineffective at removing trace organic contaminants (TrOCs), including per and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and pharmaceuticals. Cross-linked β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) polymer adsorbents have demonstrated efficient removal of TrOCs and exhibit rapid kinetics and high adsorption capacity in wastewater. We evaluate the removal of a mixture of contaminants from wastewater by a styrene functionalized β-CD adsorbent (StyDex) through rapid small-scale column tests (RSSCTs). We found the kinetics observed in batch adsorption tests are maintained in RSSCTs. However, batch sorption kinetic constants did not match column breakthrough kinetics, due to an inability to describe complex flow-through behaviors. We correlated both batch kinetic constants and treatable bed volumes with hydrophobicity of target compounds, where PFOA and PFHxS had the highest affinity for StyDex in batch tests and the latest breakthroughs in RSSCTs. Breakthrough curves of five of the seven TrOCs were not affected by change in contact time. Conversely, decreasing the contact time led to earlier breakthrough of contaminants with the highest sorption affinity to StyDex: longer chained and sulfonated PFAS compounds. These effects were isolated in two-component competitive sorption experiments between PFOA and PFBA, and we observed the same preferential sorption of hydrophobic compounds identified in the multi-component mixture. Additionally, competitive adsorption-desorption increased with increasing contact times. We discuss how these findings are crucial for scale-up and large-scale testing of novel sorbents.

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新型β-环糊精吸附剂在不同接触时间内去除城市污水中的PFAS和药物

在废水处理中应用的传统吸附剂在去除微量有机污染物（troc）方面是无效的，包括per和聚氟烷基物质（PFAS）和药物。交联β-环糊精（β-CD）聚合物吸附剂在废水中表现出快速的吸附动力学和高的吸附能力。我们通过快速小规模柱试验（RSSCTs）评估了苯乙烯功能化β-CD吸附剂（StyDex）对废水中混合污染物的去除效果。我们发现在间歇吸附试验中观察到的动力学在RSSCTs中保持不变。然而，由于无法描述复杂的流动行为，批吸附动力学常数与柱突破动力学不匹配。我们将批次动力学常数和可处理床体积与目标化合物的疏水性进行了关联，其中PFOA和PFHxS在批次测试中对StyDex的亲和力最高，并且在RSSCTs中取得了最新突破。7个触点中有5个触点的突破曲线不受接触时间的影响。相反，减少接触时间可以更早地突破对StyDex具有最高吸附亲和力的污染物：长链和磺化的PFAS化合物。这些效应在PFOA和PFBA的双组分竞争吸附实验中被分离出来，并且我们观察到在多组分混合物中发现的疏水化合物具有相同的优先吸附。此外，竞争性吸附-解吸随接触时间的增加而增加。我们讨论了这些发现如何对新型吸附剂的规模化和大规模测试至关重要。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Water Research 环境科学-工程：环境

CiteScore

20.80

自引率

9.40%

发文量

1307

审稿时长

38 days

期刊介绍： Water Research, along with its open access companion journal Water Research X, serves as a platform for publishing original research papers covering various aspects of the science and technology related to the anthropogenic water cycle, water quality, and its management worldwide. The audience targeted by the journal comprises biologists, chemical engineers, chemists, civil engineers, environmental engineers, limnologists, and microbiologists. The scope of the journal include: •Treatment processes for water and wastewaters (municipal, agricultural, industrial, and on-site treatment), including resource recovery and residuals management; •Urban hydrology including sewer systems, stormwater management, and green infrastructure; •Drinking water treatment and distribution; •Potable and non-potable water reuse; •Sanitation, public health, and risk assessment; •Anaerobic digestion, solid and hazardous waste management, including source characterization and the effects and control of leachates and gaseous emissions; •Contaminants (chemical, microbial, anthropogenic particles such as nanoparticles or microplastics) and related water quality sensing, monitoring, fate, and assessment; •Anthropogenic impacts on inland, tidal, coastal and urban waters, focusing on surface and ground waters, and point and non-point sources of pollution; •Environmental restoration, linked to surface water, groundwater and groundwater remediation; •Analysis of the interfaces between sediments and water, and between water and atmosphere, focusing specifically on anthropogenic impacts; •Mathematical modelling, systems analysis, machine learning, and beneficial use of big data related to the anthropogenic water cycle; •Socio-economic, policy, and regulations studies.