Uppsala University and the Ångström Laboratory have received funding for a pre-study on specific absorbents for PFOS/PFAS in storm water. The grant is a direct response to a query from Swedrop AB on ideas on how to address the issue. Storm- water is normally polluted with a wide variety of toxic substances, whereas PFOS/PFAS appears in low concentration, but is extremely persistent. Consequently, general purpose absorbents such as activated carbon can be easily saturated by common pollutants that appear in higher concentration. One idea, hypothesis is to find absorbents that tie specifically to PFOS/PFAS, thus avoiding ”overwhelming” the storm water filter.
Dr. Raffaello Papadakis will carry out a literature survey on existing separation methodologies for PFOS/PFAS compounds with special emphasis on solutions for storm water cleanage, as well as run 4-to-, 5, several experiments on the further treatment of iPrOF functionalized graphene. The biological part of the studies is, at this time, limited to a literature search/feasibility survey. The chemical part of the studies will indicate whether further functionalization with fluoroalkyl and fluoroaryl groups can be carried out successfully, while the biological literature study will provide critically important information to find suitable organisms and exopolymers efficient in absorption of various fluorinated pollutants.