This study evaluates the effectiveness of five types of Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) and one anion exchange resin in a pilot plant for treating groundwater for drinking water production, specifically targeting the removal of persistent compounds like PFAS. Using liquid chromatography and supercritical fluid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry, hundreds of features (i.e. peak at specific mass and retention time) were detected in the groundwater by non-target analysis. Initially, after treating <3200 bed volumes (BV), the GAC filter materials showed < 6 % breakthrough for all features from the groundwater, with decreasing efficiency down to 79 % breakthrough after seven month (69,000 treated BV for µGAC). Using resin as a lag filter after GAC did not improve the removal of compounds detected in positive electrospray ionization mode. However, it enhanced removal by up to 35% for compounds detected in negative electrospray ionization mode, indicating higher selectivity of resin for acidic compounds like PFAS. The shortest detected PFAS (PFBA and PFPeA) broke through completely for all GAC and the resin material except the proprietary blended GAC (at 15,700 treated BV), which had only 19% breakthrough for PFPeA. The so far rarely detected perfluoro(4-ethylcyclohexane)sulfonic acid (PFECHS) was well adsorbed by GAC coupled to resin and by the proprietary blended GAC. Pesticides were effectively removed by GACs, but not by the resin filter. Contaminants not previously detected in groundwater, 2,4,5-trichlorobenzenesulfonic acid (TCBS) and 2-amino-4-chloro-5-methylbenzenesulfonic acid (ACMBS), were effectively removed (>92 %), but high ACMBS concentrations (360 ng/L) in groundwater are of concern. The drinking water after the resin filter revealed 20 new contaminants, such as tributylamine derivatives and monobutyl phthalate, indicating resin filters contribution to drinking water contamination. Accelerated migration experiments of the resin revealed additional contaminants, such as NDBA and further phthalates, highlighting the need for continued monitoring and evaluation of resin materials in water treatment systems.

中文翻译：

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中试规模活性炭和阴离子交换树脂处理中饮用水污染物的非目标评价


本研究评估了五种类型的颗粒活性炭 （GAC） 和一种阴离子交换树脂在中试工厂处理地下水用于饮用水生产的有效性，特别是针对去除 PFAS 等持久性化合物。使用液相色谱和超临界流体色谱结合高分辨率质谱，通过非目标分析在地下水中检测到数百种特征（即比质量和保留时间的峰）。最初，在处理 <3200 床体积 （BV） 后，GAC 过滤材料显示 < 对地下水的所有特征都有 6% 的穿透率，7 个月后效率下降到 79% 的穿透率（μGAC 处理了 69,000 个 BV）。在 GAC 后使用树脂作为滞后过滤器并不能提高在正电喷雾电离模式下检测到的化合物的去除率。然而，对于在负电喷雾电离模式下检测到的化合物，它的去除率提高了 35%，表明树脂对 PFAS 等酸性化合物的选择性更高。除专有混合 GAC（处理 15,700 BV）外，所有 GAC 和树脂材料检出的最短 PFAS（PFBA 和 PFPeA）完全穿透，PFPeA 的穿透率仅为 19%。迄今为止很少检测到的全氟（4-乙基环己烷）磺酸 （PFECHS） 被与树脂偶联的 GAC 和专有的混合 GAC 很好地吸附。GAC 有效去除了农药，但树脂过滤器没有去除农药。以前在地下水中未检测到的污染物，即 2,4,5-三氯苯磺酸 （TCBS） 和 2-氨基-4-氯-5-甲基苯磺酸 （ACMBS） 已被有效去除 （>92 %），但地下水中的高 ACMBS 浓度 （360 ng/L） 令人担忧。 树脂过滤器后的饮用水中发现了 20 种新污染物，例如三丁胺衍生物和邻苯二甲酸单丁酯，表明树脂过滤器对饮用水污染有贡献。树脂的加速迁移实验揭示了其他污染物，例如 NDBA 和其他邻苯二甲酸盐，这突出表明需要持续监测和评估水处理系统中的树脂材料。