Carollo Engineers is leading a new study from the Water Research Foundation — project 5388 — with the goal of generating data and decision making tools for water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) assess powdered activated carbon (PAC) as a near-term treatment option for PFAS.
PAC is a sorbent used to adsorb contaminants as a cost-effective solution for removing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from treated wastewater effluent.
The study, Efficacy for PAC for PFAS Removal in Wastewater Effluent, will evaluate PAC’s potential as PFAS regulations continue to evolve.
While many PFAS treatment evaluations have focused on drinking water and reuse applications, the more complex chemical matrix in wastewater effluent, including organic matter, solids, and competing compounds, can reduce adsorption performance and complicate implementation.
Supported by several participating utilities and university partners, the 16-month study will help utilities better understand PAC performance in wastewater conditions and what it could take, both operationally and financially, to use PAC for PFAS effluent polishing.
The project’s goals are to generate wastewater-specific PAC feasibility data across multiple facilities, provide infrastructure and cost guidance for PAC dosing in secondary and tertiary treatment, and identify the next research and scale-up steps needed for broader implementation. It will also equip WRRFs, engineers, and regulators with tools to evaluate technical, logistical, and economic feasibility across scales and regions.
The study will include a literature review and bench-scale jar testing using wastewater samples from a diverse set of participating utilities in the United States and Canada.
Jar testing will evaluate multiple PAC products across a range of doses for removal before and after secondary and tertiary treatment. Testing will be conducted through a combination of utility in-house capabilities and evaluation at Carollo’s Water Applied Research Center (Water ARC®) in Boise, Idaho.
“Utilities need defensible, wastewater-specific information to evaluate near-term PFAS treatment options,” said Dr. Michelle Young, senior wastewater technologist at Carollo and principal investigator for the project. “This project will help WRRFs identify optimal PAC application points and clarify the remaining implementation questions around dosing, timing, and cost that need answers before moving to pilot or full-scale.”
Upon completion, the project team will deliver a final guidance report, a fact sheet, and a cost and performance estimating tool. Study findings will be shared through a WRF webcast and industry conference presentations.
PFAS, referred to as “forever chemicals,” are receiving heightened scrutiny due to their persistence in the environment and the associated removal costs that fall mostly to water/wastewater systems. Water Resource Recovery Facilities are passive receivers of PFAS, with the chemicals entering wastewater streams from residential and industrial discharges.
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