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Abstracts

“Treatment of PFAS in Groundwater with Regenerable Anion Exchange Resin as a Bridge to PFAS Destruction” by Dr. Erika Houtz (ER23-8391)

This project demonstrated the effectiveness of regenerable anion exchange resin (AER) in treating 2.5 million gallons of PFAS-impacted groundwater at former Naval Air Station (NAS) Joint Base Willow Grove. Over an 8-month demonstration period, the system met low level treatment goals for a range of short and long chain PFAS. The regenerable AER showed enduring performance across multiple cycles, and concentrated PFAS waste by a factor of tens of thousands for subsequent PFAS destruction technologies. This presentation will highlight key technology features, novel aspects of the demonstration, performance data on groundwater treatment, recovery of PFAS during regeneration, and replicability of PFAS treatment cycles over multiple regeneration events.

“Surface Active Foam Fractionation Concentrates PFAS for Cost Effective Destruction” by Dr. Kent Sorenson (ER23-8381) 

This project demonstrated Surface Active Foam Fractionation (SAFF®), a commercially available technology that removes and concentrates PFAS from water, at Biddle Air National Guard Base. Foam fractionation is an adsorptive bubble separation technique that can grab substances like PFAS from water as they adsorb onto the surface of rising bubbles (i.e., air-water interfaces). Through several stages of foam fractionation, SAFF® produces clean effluent free of PFAS and a liquid foamate highly enriched in PFAS. This small volume of foamate is ideal for destruction by emerging technologies such as super-critical water oxidation (SCWO) and hydrothermal alkaline treatment (HALT).

“Remediation of AFFF-Impacted Groundwater Using Novel Cyclodextrin Adsorbent (DEXSORB®)” by Ms. Ri Wang (ER23-8379) 

This project demonstrated DEXSORB®, a new adsorbent made with β-cyclodextrins that features molecular selectivity and high capacity to capture long and short chain PFAS from water, to treat PFAS-impacted groundwater at former NAS Joint Base Willow Grove. A key feature of DEXSORB® is that spent media can be desorbed under ambient conditions to separate and concentrate PFAS waste for efficient processing by destruction technology vendors. The project aimed to validate the performance of DEXSORB packed-bed filtration (PBF) for high-capacity PFAS sequestration in site groundwater, followed by desorption and concentration of PFAS. The DEXSORB® PBF pilot system treated more than three hundred thousand gallons of PFAS-impacted groundwater. All target PFAS were driven below detectable levels. The presentation will cover the DEXSORB® pilot system design, system operation and hydraulic results, PFAS removal from groundwater, recovery of extracted PFAS by desorption and concentration, and performance of regenerated DEXSORB.

Speaker Biographies

Dr. Erika Houtz is a technical director at ECT2 in the San Francisco Bay Area where she is engaged in the evaluation and development of treatment and destruction technologies that can be incorporated into ECT2 treatment systems. She has extensive experience in developing analytical and experimental methods for the measurement and breakdown of anthropogenic compounds in environmental and human samples, including developing the total oxidizable precursor (TOP) assay for measurement of PFAS. She has served as a principal and co-principal investigator on ESTCP projects and worked on environmental remediation projects for the Air Force, Navy, and Army. Dr. Houtz earned her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Ohio State University, and master’s and doctoral degrees in environmental engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Kent Sorenson is the Chief Technology Officer at Allonnia in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a globally recognized expert in innovative technologies, with over 30 years of experience addressing environmental challenges in contaminant treatment and mineral processing across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. His work has earned numerous accolades, including the 2020 Henry L. Michel Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers for Industry Advancement of Research. Kent holds six U.S. patents and has more than 15 pending patents related to remediation of contaminated sites, water treatment, and sustainable mining. He has coauthored over 40 scientific publications and delivered more than 200 presentations at national and international conferences. Dr. Sorenson earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Tulane University, a master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from MIT, and a doctoral degree in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Idaho.

Ms. Ri Wang is the Vice President of Environmental Engineering at Cyclopure in Evanston, IL., where she leads the design and deployment of engineered system applications using DEXSORB® for PFAS removal in diverse water matrices, including drinking water, wastewater, groundwater, and landfill leachate. To date, Ms. Wang has worked on over 40 pilot- and full-scale DEXSORB® system deployments and has played a key role in several PFAS projects funded by the Air Force and ESTCP. Ms. Wang’s technical background extends to lab-scale PFAS treatability modeling and design, pilot system development, and full-scale system design. She earned her master’s degree in environmental engineering from Cornell University.