Occurrence and mass flow rate of PFAS in a Waste-to-Energy water treatment process

Abstract

This study investigated the fate of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the in-house process-water treatment (PWT) of a 65 MW Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plant. PFAS are used in a wide variety of applications, but are persistent and will end up in waste streams when products reach the end of their lives. The study aimed to identify the pathway of PFAS from flue-gas treatment to the PWT, and to assess the efficiency of the PWT in removing PFAS.

Sampling was conducted over five days at five different locations in the PWT. Nine of the eleven target PFAS were detected in at least one sample. The total concentration of PFAS exhibited day-to-day variations, likely caused by fluctuations in the composition of the waste fuel. The highest average PFAS concentration was observed in foam, and was around 130 times that found in the treated water. However, the mass flow of PFAS in the foam was substantially lower, on average 20 times, than that in the treated water.

It was found that the condensate scrubber acts as a PFAS transfer step, carrying over certain PFAS from the flue gases into the condensate and PWT. The mass flow rate of PFAS in the PWT after the addition of condensate was six times that before the addition.

The study concludes that, while there are some key changes that could be made to enhance the PFAS removal capacity of the in-house PWT, in its current configuration the PWT is not able to efficiently remove PFAS from process-water.