The United States Air Force Civil Engineering Center (AFCEC) is conducting on-going response activities to remove and remediate groundwater impacted by poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at the former Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire.
AFCEC responded by contracting with Wood Group PLC to conduct a side-by-side pilot test in 2016, comparing the performance of Emerging Compound Treatment Technology’s (ECT2) regenerable ion exchange (IX) resin and bituminous granular activated carbon (GAC). The regenerable resin system was selected for full-scale application, based on system performance and a lower overall lifecycle cost than GAC.
A 200-gpm system was provided to meet the primary project objective of producing treated water with combined PFOS plus PFOA concentrations below the 70 ng/l HAL. The full-scale IX resin system was installed from fall 2017 through spring 2018.
The PFAS remediation system has treated more than 9 million gallons of groundwater having a total influent average PFAS concentration of 70 µg/l. The effluent quality from the IX resin system has been consistently non-detect for all 13 monitored PFAS compounds, including the short-chain species, readily achieving compliance with the 70 ng/l HAL target.
Five successful resin regenerations have been performed to date. Operational modifications have been made to address and correct minor challenges with the distillation system, and regenerant recovery and super-loading processes have proven successful. The original super-loading media is still operational, having removed and concentrated greater than 99.99 percent of the recovered PFAS mass, and therefore no PFAS waste has needed to be hauled off site to date.
