Monitoring Produced Gases From PFAS Destruction Technologies Inline With OTM-50

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in the Environment
Oral Presentation

Prepared by H. Calder
Markes International, 1000B Central Park, Western Avenue, Bridgend, (State/Province), CF31 3RT, United Kingdom


Contact Information: [email protected]; 01443230935

ABSTRACT

Many per and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) removal technologies seek to breakdown the compounds into small components which can be captured or neutralized. Incineration of PFAS and PFAS containing products like aqueous film forming foams (AFFF) is a common disposal method and aims to degrade PFAS species into HF, CO2 and water. However if this process does not happen under the correct conditions products of incomplete destruction (PIDs) are created. This is also true of other novel techniques which are now being researched and used to try and managed PFAS. Often PIDs are volatile fluorinated chemicals (VFCs) and have their own detrimental effect upon the environment. This means that PFAS destruction must be monitored in a meaningful way. The US EPA published its first method, OTM 50, for monitoring these VFCs in 2024 in response to growing concerns that materials being disposed of weren’t being fully destroyed.
Thermal desorption coupled to gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS) is commonly applied to monitoring of hazardous organic compounds in ambient air and has been utilised by the US EPA for the monitoring of VFCs.

In this study we will share data showing how TD-GC-MS with canister sampling offers a robust approach to performing monitoring of PFAS destruction sites for the most challenging compounds expected to be in OTM 50. We will also discuss the challenges related to this difficult matrix.