ABSTRACT

This seminar presents research spanning per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) source characterization through advanced treatment approaches. First, I will discuss the first direct quantification of household PFAS emissions upstream of wastewater treatment facilities. We achieved this through a combination of (1) residential sub-sewershed and (2) citizen science-based household sampling approaches. PFAS emissions from homes are low, but persistent, and cannot be unregulated. Second, I will discuss how water chemistry governs the effectiveness of non-thermal plasma for PFAS degradation. We found that common buffer constituents, such as acetate and carbonate, dramatically alter PFAS degradation, with the outcome dependent on the plasma system’s reactive radical flux. This water matrix sensitivity has profound implications for the design of treatment systems across diverse wastewater compositions.

BRIEF ACADEMIC/EMPLOYMENT HISTORY:

Dr. Adeyemi Adeleye is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering, Columbia University. Before then, he was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2015. In 2016, he was awarded a National Research Council Research Associateship by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which he spent as a postdoctoral researcher at the US Environmental Protection Agency’s research laboratory in Rhode Island. 

MOST RECENT RESEARCH INTERESTS:

PFAS analysis, environmental fate, and degradation.