Omneya El-Sharnouby, Ph.D. (Ontario) coauthored an article entitled “Mechanochemical remediation of perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) amended sand and aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) impacted soil by planetary ball milling” for publication in Science of The Total Environment on October 6, 2020.

Omneya’s coauthors were Lauren Turner, Bernard Kueper, Kevin Mumford (Queen’s University), Kela Weber, Kevin Jaansalu, David Patch, and Nick Battye (Royal Military College of Canada).

Omneya is a Senior Staff Scientist at Geosyntec with more than four years of experience in environmental remediation. Omneya obtained her doctorate degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Western University developing novel metal-based treatments for groundwater remediation for carcinogenic chlorinated organic contaminants, specifically 1,2-dichloroethane (1,2-DCA). As a post-doctoral fellow at Queen’s University, she has developed an innovative plan for the destruction of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in groundwater via nanometals with potential application for surface water and industrial and municipal wastewater. She participated with the Royal Military College of Canada in the development of multiple PFAS-impacted soil treatments as well as laboratory analysis of PFAS contaminated water and soil samples from industrial, municipal, and military-based sites and remediation experiments. Omneya also researched the fate and transport of selected PFAS compounds in bedrock formations.

Science of the Total Environment is an international multi-disciplinary journal for publication of novel, hypothesis-driven and high-impact research on the total environment, which interfaces the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and anthroposphere.

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Abstract/Description

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are manmade, fluorinated organic chemicals which have been identified as persistent organic pollutants. PFAS have surface active properties that have made them suitable for applications in oil- and water-resistant products, as well as many firefighting foams. No on-site remediation strategies exist to treat PFAS impacted soils. Mechanochemical remediation of PFOS- and PFOA-amended sand via a planetary ball mill was studied. The effect of sand mass, KOH as a co-milling reagent, and water saturation on the degradation of PFOA and PFOS was evaluated. By four hours of milling concentrations were reduced by up to 98% for PFOS-amended dry sand and 99% for PFOA-amended dry sand without the addition of a co-milling reagent. Water saturation was determined to be a significant hindrance on the mechanochemical destruction of PFOS and PFOA. A maximum of 89% of fluoride was recovered from PFOS-amended sand when KOH was used as a co-milling reagent. It is hypothesized that reactive particles generated from the fracture of sand grains react with PFAS molecules to initiate destruction, which can result in full defluorination. Milling experiments were also conducted on soils from a Canadian firefighting training area (FFTA), demonstrating that PFOS concentrations can be reduced by up to 96% in site soils. For the first time, ball milling for the remediation of PFAS in environmental media has been demonstrated using amended sand and legacy soils from a FFTA.

More Information

About the article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142722
About Science of The Total Environment: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/science-of-the-total-environment
For consultation regarding mechanochemical remediation, contact Omneya at OElSharnouby@geosyntec.com
Learn more about Omneya: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omneya-elsharnouby/?originalSubdomain=ca