University Calendar
Destruction of PFOA Laden on Ion-exchange Resin with Advanced Reduction Processes to Regenerate Resins for Addressing PFOA Pollution in Drinking Water
Doctoral candidate, Junkui Cui, defends his dissertation for his PhD in Environmental Science and Management. Join us for the presentation on Zoom.
About the Candidate
Mr. Cui received his Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science at Tianjin University and Master of Science in Environmental Science at Rutgers University. His research has been undertaken in the Department of Earth & Environmental Studies at Montclair State University and has been presented in the journals, such as Environmental Science & Technology and ACS ES&T Engineering, and different national and regional conferences.
About the Dissertation
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been globally incorporated into various industrial and consumer products. However, concerns about PFAS have grown because of their adverse impacts on human and environmental health. Unfortunately, traditional water treatment processes inefficiently remove PFAS. Among the established PFAS treatment technologies, ion-exchange (IX) has been extensively applied to drinking water treatment. However, IX is highly cost-inefficient and environmentally unfriendly because of the expenses associated with off-site regeneration and no PFAS detoxification. In contrast, advanced reduction processes (ARPs) have demonstrated technical viability for PFAS degradation due to the generation of hydrated electron (eaq-). Nevertheless, ARPs are restricted in drinking water treatment because of the different technical difficulties. Thus, this dissertation aims to advance the fundamental understanding of the interactions of eaq- and PFAS-laden IX resins, thereby providing a scientific basis for the development of an innovative on-site ARP-based IX resin regeneration method capable of recovering spent resins and degrading PFAS in drinking water treatment. The results from this dissertation will build a solid foundation for a novel ARP-enabled on-site IX regeneration approach to the PFAS pollution in drinking water.
Committee
- Dr. Yang Deng, Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Studies (Chair)
- Dr. Huan Feng, Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Studies
- Dr. Jinshan Gao, Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Dr. Mengyan Li, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science, NJIT