“PFAS” Exploring the Origins, Impact, Regulations and Remediation Technologies—An Overview

PFAS, ubiquitous in various industrial and consumer products, poses significant environmental and health concerns due to their persistence and bio-accumulative nature. This review hence discusses sources, potential exposure pathways, ecological and health impacts of PFAS. The review further explores various PFAS degradation and removal technologies, including bioremediation, chemical oxidation, advanced oxidation processes, adsorption, membrane filtration, plasma-based degradation, thermal treatment, and hydrolysis, highlighting their potential applications in addressing PFAS contamination. It is observed that significant obstacle is the inefficiency of many technologies in eliminating short-chain PFAS, which are more environmentally stable than long-chain counterparts, raising concerns about converting long-chain PFAS into short-chain forms, during degradation process. Moreover, thorough toxicological assessments are crucial to verify the effectiveness of each technology and prevent the generation of new PFAS or toxic byproducts during treatment. Currently, there exists a pressing societal demand exists to explore affordable and environmentally safe PFAS degradation technologies, minimizing negative environmental repercussions, and being feasible for large-scale field applications. Also, there is a need to establish maximum allowable contamination level data for PFAS in drinking water, treated water for reuse and soil, for Indian context. Overall, this review provides insights into understanding PFAS contamination issues and highlights the potential of degradation technologies in addressing this pressing environmental challenge.