Novel PFAS Treatment Wins the Excellence in Capstone Engineering Design Award at Rice University

🌟🌟 #WINNING GSI-Sponsored Senior Design Project at Rice University on Novel PFAS Treatment Wins the Excellence in Capstone Engineering Design Award! #PFAS #environmental #innovation

GSI Environmental Inc. established a new method for concentrating per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that relies on colloidal gas aphrons (CGAs), unusual microstructures composed of water, multilayers of surfactants, and air, that can be used for separation and concentration of PFAS-impacted water (Newell et al., 2021, patent pending; Kulkarni et al., 2022). In the recently published study by GSI and Clarkson University, in small batch systems, CGAs were effective in the removal of both ionic dyes (as proxies for PFAS), as well as short-chain PFAS (Kulkarni et al., 2022).

As a follow-on GSI-sponsored project, Rice University’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen team designed a continuous flow CGA system for ex-situ PFAS treatment. The automated system was successful using methylene blue dye as a proxy for PFAS, and consisted of:
– ~1 gpm continuous flow of impacted water through a separation reactor
– Generation of CGAs, verified using microscopy
– Continuous removal of concentrated PFAS/CGA layers
– 96% removal of methylene blue dye in effluent of reactor

Due to their clever design and successful execution, the team won the Excellence in Capstone Engineering Design Award! We thank the team members and look forward to continued support of the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen at Rice University.

Rice University Team Members: Andreas P., Caroline C., Christian Metoyer, Eunice Aissi, Marshall Doty, Megha Reddy, Scott Fessler, Dr. Matt Elliott

GSI Team Members: Poonam Kulkarni, P.E., Hassan Javed, Ph.D., Jessica Alanis, Nicholas Johnson, Ph.D., Stephen Richardson, PhD, PE, Chuck Newell

References:
Newell, C. J., Kulkarni, P. R., Javed, H., Johnson, N. W., & Richardson, S. D., 2021. Process to separate per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from water using colloidal gas aphrons (CGAs). U.S. Provisional Pat. App. No. 63237595.

Kulkarni, P.R., Aranzales, D., Javed, H., Holsen, T.M., Johnson, N.W., Richardson, S.D., Mededovic Thagard, S., Newell, C.J., 2022. Process to Separate Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances from Water Using Colloidal Gas Aphrons. Remediation Journal. https://lnkd.in/eNw8jvPb

👉👉 Read the full paper at https://lnkd.in/ewafDyAK