Recent advances in Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances removal: Technologies, mechanisms and future prospects

Abstract

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), as " forever chemicals", their high chemical stability and environmental persistence characteristics, can cause persistent hazards to ecosystems and human health through bioaccumulation. However, the existing PFASs removal technologies (such as physical adsorption, chemical oxidation/reduction, biodegradation, etc.) still face bottleneck problems such as low efficiency, long reaction cycle, and high cost and energy consumption. Furthermore, there are significant gaps in the lack of comparison of different technologies at the cost and energy levels. This paper systematically sorts out the core mechanisms and parameters of mainstream technologies. While focusing on analyzing the mechanisms, material properties and influencing factors of different methods, it also focuses on the energy consumption/cost-efficiency balance of different technologies, and evaluates the feasibility and limitations of various technologies for removing PFASs. The aim is to explore the comprehensive performance of PFASs removal technology through a multi-dimensional evaluation. Finally, looking forward to future research directions, including the development of new and highly efficient catalysts, promoting microbial-chemical coupling processes, and advocating the development of dual-functional detection-removal integrated material technologies and equipment, to help build a safe and efficient PFASs green governance system and promote the development of environmental remediation technologies towards economic sustainability.