Speakers:
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Future Tech: Treating PFAS using AC and DC
December 9, 2021 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm EST
| $25.00Speaker: Thomas Holsen, PhD, Jean S. Newell Distinguished Professor of Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Clarkson University
Speaker: Yang Yang, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Clarkson University
Moderator: Bryan Staley, PhD, PE, President & CEO, Environmental Research & Education Foundation (EREF)
Disposing of leachate-containing per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is one of the most pressing issues surrounding the operation of landfills today. PFAS have been used in many commercial and industrial products, including as coatings for paper or food packaging and textiles, industrial surfactants, insecticides, and aqueous film forming foams. But when these materials are discarded in landfills, they can breakdown over time to release PFAS.
In this presentation, Dr. Holsen and Dr. Yang will discuss the treatment of PFAS in leachate using two novel destructive approaches: electrical discharge plasma (EDP) and electrochemical oxidative filtration (EOF).
Both processes are innovative, state-of-the-art advanced reductive/oxidative technologies that individually or in combination will aid in managing PFAS in landfill leachate and lead to improved decision making, management practices, and technical methods to minimize PFAS risks from leachate to both humans and ecosystems.[/vc_column_text]
Thomas H. Holsen, PhD
Thomas M. Holsen is the Jean S. Newell Distinguished Professor in Engineering, a professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Clarkson University and Director of the Clarkson Center for Air and Aquatic Resources Engineering and Sciences. His primary research interests include the transport, transformations and fate of legacy and emerging hydrophobic organic chemicals, mercury, metals, and ions in a wide array of environmental systems. He is a co-PI on several large projects investigating the use of non-thermal plasma to remove per- and polyfluorinated compounds (PFASs) from water. Dr. Holsen is a Board Certified Environmental Engineering Member, American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists. He has over 200 publications and has successfully supervised research projects from industrial sources and State and Federal Agencies.
Yang Yang, PhD
Dr. Yang Yang received his Ph.D. from Tsinghua University in 2014 and his postdoc training at California Institute of Technology in 2014-2018. He joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Clarkson University as an Assistant Professor in 2019.
Dr. Yang is specialized in the synthesis and characterization of advanced electrocatalytic materials and their environmental applications. Dr. Yang has published 26+ peer-reviewed articles and owned two patents on subject areas of trace organic analysis, wastewater treatment, and flue gas purification. He is serving as the associate editor of Emerging Contaminants and guest editor of Water Environmental Research. His group at Clarkson received over $1M funding supports from NSF, DoD, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, NYDEC, and the Environmental Research and Education Foundation.
Moderator:
Bryan Staley, PhD, PE
Dr. Bryan Staley currently serves as President and CEO of the Environmental Research & Education Foundation (EREF), one of the largest sources of research funding and graduate scholarships related to solid waste management. He joined EREF in 2008, where he started as Vice President of Environmental Programs, and has over 20 years’ experience in the environmental engineering field.
He is recognized nationally as a technical expert in sustainable solid waste management issues, and obtained a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University, where his research focused on understanding microbiological mechanisms for waste decomposition and methane generation from solid waste. He also holds a Master’s degree in Biosystems Engineering from the University of Tennessee, and a B.S. in Biological & Agricultural Engineering from North Carolina State University.
Dr. Staley is a licensed professional engineer who has held key positions in consulting firms as a Project Manager and Vice President of Engineering, where he managed projects ranging from solid waste management, wastewater treatment system design, to retail/commercial land development and environmental management of large-scale livestock operations.