Degradation of Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS) by Nanofiltration Membrane Enrichment-VUV/Sulfite Reduction

Abstract

As an efficient approach for trace organic contaminant removal, nanofiltration (NF) membrane showed a high rejection (> 95%) for perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) when initial PFOS concentration in the feed solution was greater than 500 μg/L. The concentrated PFOS solution can be reductively degraded by a VUV/sulfite system. PFOS degradation in the studied system can be well described by a pseudo-first-order model, and the observed rate constants (kobs) was 0.0147 min-1, which was about 6 folds higher than that in sole VUV system. By using different reaction atmosphere and scavengers, hydrated electron (eaq -) was figured out the dominant species responsible for PFOS degradation in the VUV/sulfite system.