Membrane technologies for the effective removal of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl substances from contaminated water

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as “forever chemicals” pose significant environmental and health risks due to their persistence, mobility, and resistance to conventional water treatment methods. PFAS entirely contaminates the earth, but monitoring data are often scarce, limited, or hard to access. The strong C-F (536 kJ/mole) bonds allow them to accumulate in the environment, wildlife, and human bodies, leading to potential health risks such as cholesterol, immune system suppression, thyroid disease, cancer, and  other developmental issues. PFAS contamination in water bodies, landfill leachates, soils, and the atmosphere is a growing concern globally. Previous studies in India detected PFAS in surface water (up to 23.1 ng/L), tap water (10-100 ng/L), and in biotas like fish, shrimp, and dolphins (0.093-83.9 ng/g), human breast milk. Treatment of PFAS-contaminated water, soil and wastewater is essential to ensure the destruction of persistent chemicals harmful to the surrounding environment. Traditional treatment technologies, such as biological treatment processes, chemical processes such as coagulation and chlorination, and physical processes such as sand filtration, cannot eliminate these pollutants. Membrane technologies particularly nanofiltration (NF), reverse osmosis (RO), membrane distillation (MD) offer an advanced and sustainable solution for removing persistent PFAS from contaminated water, landfill leachates, and industrial effluents. Processes such as NF, RO, MD, provide high rejection of both long and short chain PFAS, enabling effective cleanup where conventional treatments fail. Their selectivity, efficiency and compatibility with hybrid systems make membranes a powerful tool for mitigating PFAS across diverse environmental systems. This study highlights the importance of advanced membrane technologies for the remediation of PFAS contaminated water.