Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf have created two methods to degrade per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS. These industrial compounds resist breakdown due to strong carbon-fluorine bonds. The approaches combine hydrodynamic cavitation and cold atmospheric plasma with gas dispersion. Results appeared in Chemical Engineering Journal Advances and Scientific Reports.
Analyses by the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research confirmed PFAS breakdown and fluoride release. If scaled, the techniques could help industry cut PFAS discharges into waterways. Some PFAS are linked to genetic changes and cancer risk, though effects of many variants remain unclear. Over 10,000 such chemicals exist and spread globally through wastewater, including recent detections in the Elbe River.
Work supports Germany’s National Water Strategy for protecting drinking supplies. In one study, hydrodynamic cavitation passed PFAS-laden water through a narrow passage to form vapor bubbles. Surface-active compounds attach to these bubbles, which collapse downstream and generate extreme local heat plus reactive radicals that attack molecular bonds. Tests with perfluorooctane sulfonate achieved roughly 37 percent degradation, with longer runs increasing fluoride levels.
A second method used cold atmospheric plasma at the water surface alongside gas injection. PFAS migrate to rising bubbles and reach the plasma zone for decomposition. This process, run at ambient conditions without catalysts or added chemicals, nearly eliminated both long- and short-chain PFAS.
