Dr. Dora Chiang, Ph.D.

Managing PFAS-Laden Exhausted Sorbents - Updates on Treatment Technologies

Dr. Dora Chiang, Global Principal, PFAS and Emerging Contaminants, Jacobs

Anion exchange resin (AIX) and granular activated carbon (GAC) have been successfully demonstrated to remove PFAS from water sources.  With growing concerns and public scrutiny of PFAS-containing wastes returning into the environment through incineration and landfill disposal, technologies have been developed to regenerate, reactivate, and destroy the spent sorbents while PFAS are concentrated or destroyed during the processes.  The presentation will summarize the novel technologies developed to manage spent sorbents such as effective thermal destruction, electrochemical processes, and regeneration processes.  Additionally, the presentation will highlight the challenges of characterizing PFAS in spent sorbents which skewed the PFAS removal and destruction efficiency (DRE).  Through technology demonstration of PFAS destruction, analytical approach is important to verify DRE and fluorine mass balance.  The presentation will include a case study that supercritical water oxidation technology was used to destroy spent AIX and PFAS while fluorine mass balance is evaluated. 

Dr. Dora Chiang is Global Principal for PFAS and emerging contaminants at Jacobs. She has 25 years of consulting experience and has multiple global practice leader and technical director roles throughout her career. Since 2012 she has collaborated with universities and clients to investigate the nature and extent of PFAS and other emerging contaminants, develop and demonstrate innovative solutions that separate, concentrate, and destroy PFAS, and strategize source reduction for PFAS management sustainably and safely.  She is invited speaker at national and international conferences, author of multiple peer-reviewed journal articles, technical lead of numerous local, state, federal, industrial projects.  She serves as principal investigator (PI) of multiple US DOD funded PFAS technology development projects.