PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of more than 5 000 anthropogenic chemicals that pose known risks to human health and the environment. They are categorised as chemicals of emerging concern (CEC), posing a main threat through the intake of food and drinking water. PFAS can be released into the environment during their use and at the end of their life. Areas around industrial production, manufacturing, application sites (e.g. sites where fluorinated fire-fighting foams have been used) and landfills have been found to be particularly contaminated by PFAS, resulting in the contamination of drinking water supplies, both surface waters and groundwater. The number of sites in Europe that have the potential to emit PFAS is estimated to be around 100 000. The chemical group was considered in the proposal of the new EU Drinking Water Directive, which set a limit value of 0.1 μg/l for individual PFAS and 0.5 μg/l for PFAS in total. Several sites in the EU have PFAS-contaminated groundwater exceeding these values.
OBJECTIVES
LIFE SOuRCE aims to demonstrate an innovative cost-efficient and versatile remediation solution for PFAS contaminated groundwater, which is able to remove long-chain PFAS (> 99 %) and short-chain PFAS (> 95 %). The project will thus represent an affordable solution, covering the broadest range of contaminated site characteristics, for meeting the new EU Drinking Water Directive targets. The solution is estimated to cost no more than €0.10 per m3 of groundwater treated.
The project’s remediation approach combines a range of innovative on-site technologies, including surface foam fractionation, anion exchange filters, electrochemical oxidation and phytoremediation. These will be demonstrated at a landfill site in Sweden and an industrial site in Spain.
Specifically, the project aims to:
- Decontaminate PFAS-polluted groundwater;
- Demonstrate the feasibility of cost-effective innovative schemes for PFAS groundwater remediation on a pilot scale;
- Reduce the environmental impacts of PFAS remediation processes in comparison to conventional technologies (i.e. mainly granular activated carbon);
- Decrease remediation costs in terms of energy and reagents consumption, time needed for remediation, etc. in comparison to conventional technologies;
- Develop versatile systems to ensure geological, geographical and sectorial replicability and transferability;
- Demonstrate the social, economic, technical and environmental feasibility of the SOuRCE solutions as innovative approaches for PFAS-polluted groundwater remediation;
- Define the business model for the commercial exploitation of the innovative schemes developed within the project;
- Disseminate the results of the SOuRCE project for the reproducibility, marketability and maximum application of the remediation schemes developed in the project in other European areas and sectors with similar conditions relating to wastewater, waste, soils and drinking water treatment;
- Promote the implementation of environmental policies and strategies for quantifying and minimising the environmental impact of PFAS-contaminated groundwater; and
- Increase awareness of the environmental problems caused by PFAS.
RESULTS
Expected results:
- Decreased PFAS contamination of groundwater bodies:
- Effluent water concentration below 0.1 μg/L for individual PFAS and 0.5 μg/L fulfilling the limit values proposal of the new EU Drinking Water Directive;
- >99% removal efficiency for long-chain PFAS (similar removal efficiency for long-chain PFAS compared to current treatments); and
- >95% removal efficiency for short-chain (< C7) PFAS (a 45% increase in the removal efficiency for short-chain PFAS on current treatments).
- Provision of source of clean water whose PFAS content does not pose a risk to human health and aquatic organisms:
- Carcinogenic risk level < 1x10-5;
- Non-carcinogenic hazard index < 1; and
- KPI6: toxicity units < 1.
- Optimised CO2 emissions associated to energy consumption:
- < 0.14 kg CO2 eq/m3 treated groundwater.
- Decreased overall operation and maintenance cost of conventional treatment of PFAS remediation:
- Operational costs of less than €0.10/m3 purified drinking water (reduction of ≥ 70% in comparison with current treatments).
Environmental impact at the end of the project (2025) assuming 23 months of continuous operation (11 months in Spain, 12 in Sweden) and volumes of treated groundwater of 3 m3/hour:
- Spain – 23 760 m3 of groundwater treated up to Drinking Water Directive limits with 127 g of PFAS removed (100 g of LC-PFAS; 27 g of SC-PFAS)
- Sweden – 25 920 m3 of groundwater treated up to Drinking Water Directive limits, with 110 g of PFAS removed (12 g of LC-PFAS; 98 g ofSC-PFAS)
Environmental impact five years after the project assuming implementation in 10 sites/year, with an average of PFAS concentration in the GW of 5μg/l and a treatment volume of 30 m3/h:
- 216 000 m3 per site of groundwater treated up to Drinking Water Directive limits with 65 700 g of PFAS removed.
