Destruction of Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in water by cold atmospheric plasma

Cold atmospheric plasma was investigated as for the remediation of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) contaminated water. The destruction of the highly toxic PFOA is a challenging task since it is a persistent and bioaccumulative chemical causing pollution in waterbodies. In this study, plasma experiments were conducted in a gas-liquid DBD (GLDBD) reactor, driven by high voltage microsecond pulsed generator. The effect of different critical parameters such as the treatment time and the plasma gas were investigated towards the degradation of PFOA in water. It was observed that air has a better performance compared to argon. In particular, a complete degradation of PFOA (>99.9%) was noticed with the air-GLDBD reactor after 30 min of treatment with the corresponding electrical energy per order (EEO) being ~900 kWh/m3.