Investigating rate-limited sorption, sorption to air-water interfaces, and colloid-facilitated transport during PFAS leaching

Various sorption processes affect leaching of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) such as PFOA and PFOS. The objectives of this study are to (1) compare rate-limited leaching in column and lysimeter experiments, (2) investigate the relevance of sorption to air-water interfaces (AWI), and (3) examine colloid-facilitated transport as a process explaining early experimental breakthrough. A continuum model (CM) with two-domain sorption is used to simulate equilibrium and rate-limited sorption. A random walk particle tracking (PT) model was developed and applied to analyze complex leaching characteristics. Results show that sorption parameters derived from column experiments underestimate long-term PFOA leaching in lysimeter experiments due to early depletion, suggesting that transformation of precursors contributes to the observed long-term leaching in the lysimeters (approximately 0.003 µg/kg/d PFOA). Both models demonstrate that sorption to AWI is the dominant retention mechanism for PFOS in lysimeter experiments, with retardation due to AWI being 3 (CM) to 3.7 (PT) times higher than retardation due to solid phase sorption. Notably, despite a simplified conception of AWI sorption, the PT results are closer to the observations. The PT simulations demonstrate possible colloid-facilitated transport at early time; however, results using substance-specific varying transport parameters align better with the observations, which should be equal if colloid-facilitated transport without additional kinetics is the sole mechanism affecting early breakthrough. Possibly, rate-limited sorption to AWI is relevant during the early stages of the lysimeter experiment. Our findings demonstrate that rate-limited sorption is less relevant for long-term leaching under field conditions compared to transformation of precursors and that sorption to AWI can be the dominant retention mechanism on contaminated sites. Moreover, they highlight the potential of random walk particle tracking as a practical alternative to continuum models for estimating the relative contributions of various retention mechanisms.

Immobilization of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS): Comparison of leaching behavior by three different leaching tests

The evaluation of PFAS immobilization performance in laboratory experiments, especially the long-term stability, is a challenge. To contribute to the development of adequate experimental procedures, the impact of experimental conditions on the leaching behavior was studied. Three experiments on different scales were compared: batch, saturated column, and variably saturated laboratory lysimeter experiments. The Infinite Sink (IS) test - a batch test with repeated sampling - was applied for PFAS for the first time. Soil from an agricultural field amended with paper-fiber biosolids polluted with various perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs; 655 μg/kg ∑¹⁸PFAAs) and polyfluorinated precursors (1.4 mg/kg ∑¹⁸precursors) was used as the primary material (N-1). Two types of PFAS immobilization agents were tested: treatment with activated carbon-based additives (soil mixtures: R-1 and R-2), and solidification with cement and bentonite (R-3). In all experiments, a chain-length dependent immobilization efficacy is observed. In R-3, the leaching of short-chain PFAAs was enhanced relative to N-1. In column and lysimeter experiments with R-1 and R-2, delayed breakthrough of short-chain PFAAs (C4) occurred (> 90 days; in column experiments at liquid-to-solid ratio (LS) > 30 L/kg) with similar temporal leaching rates suggesting that leaching in these cases was a kinetically controlled process. Observed differences between column and lysimeter experiments may be attributed to varying saturation conditions. In IS experiments, PFAS desorption from N-1, R-1, and R-2 is higher than in the column experiments (N-1: +44 %; R-1: +280 %; R-2: +162 %), desorption of short-chain PFAS occurred predominantly in the initial phase (< 14 days). Our findings demonstrate that sufficient operating times are essential in percolation experiments, e.g., in column experiments >100 days and LS > 30 L/kg. IS experiments may provide a faster estimate for nonpermanent immobilization. The comparison of experimental data from various experiments is beneficial to evaluate PFAS immobilization and to interpret leaching characteristics.