Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and microcystins are some of the well-known chemical contaminants in drinking water in the USA. Despite the availability of filtration technologies like ion-exchange resins, activated-carbon, and high-pressure membrane filters, these contaminants still remain widespread in the environment. In the present study, two innovative aspects of electrocoagulation techniques were tested, (a) cheap and easy-to-operate field-unit instead of hi-tech electrocoagulation and (b) reverse-polarity instead of conventional polarity, and applied to remove PFOA and microcystins from drinking water sources. The method presented here outperformed commercial activated-carbon filtration by nearly 40%. When the efficiency of electrocoagulation was examined in terms of voltage discharge, pH, and reverse-polarity, the results averaged 80% decontamination for individual treatment, while their combined effects produced 100% detoxification in 10–40 minutes, exceeding recently published results. The method shows great economic promise for water and wastewater treatment and chemical recycling.

中文翻译：

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电凝法去除饮用水中的全氟辛酸和微囊藻毒素

全氟辛酸 (PFOA) 和微囊藻毒素是美国饮用水中一些众所周知的化学污染物。尽管离子交换树脂、活性炭和高压膜过滤器等过滤技术可用，但这些污染物仍然广泛存在于环境中。在本研究中，测试了电凝技术的两个创新方面，(a) 廉价且易于操作的现场单元代替高科技电凝和 (b) 反极性代替常规极性，并应用于去除 PFOA和来自饮用水源的微囊藻毒素。这里介绍的方法比商业活性炭过滤性能高出近 40%。当根据电压放电、pH 值和反极性检查电凝效率时，单个治疗的结果平均 80% 去污，而它们的综合效果在 10-40 分钟内产生了 100% 的去毒，超过了最近公布的结果。该方法在水和废水处理以及化学品回收方面显示出巨大的经济前景。