CAREER: Establishing a Knowledge Base for Use and Discharge of Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are fluorinated organic chemicals that have been used in numerous consumer products and industrial applications since the 1940s. PFAS are one of the most stable chemicals ever produced. During the last two decades, increasing detection of PFAS in environmental media (including air, water, soils, and biota) has raised significant concerns about their persistence, stability, and adverse impact in the environment including toxicity to living organisms and humans.

A critical challenge in the management and mitigation of PFAS contamination in the United States (US) is the lack of curated data and systematic knowledge on the flows, emissions, and discharges of PFAS over their entire manufacturing, supply chain, and product life cycles. The overarching goal of this CAREER project is to develop and validate system analysis and modeling tools that could be used to 1) estimate the total use, accumulation, and discharge of PFAS in the US and 2) help identify the Nation’s geographic hotspots and economic drivers of PFAS contamination.

To advance this goal, the Principal Investigator proposes to carry out an integrated data collection and modeling research program structured around two thrusts. Thrust 1 will collect and synthesize available measurements of PFAS uses and emissions (including spatial and temporal data) into a national material flow analysis to generate an integrated data set that can inform and improve PFAS risk assessment and management.

Thrust 2 will operationalize multi-disciplinary techniques to guide the safer management of PFAS including the evaluation of the supply-chain and socio-economic drivers of PFAS utilization and consumption in the US. The successful completion of this project will benefit society through the development and validation of new system analysis and modeling tools to guide and support the development and implementation of more effective PFAS risk assessment, management, and mitigation strategies in the US.

Additional benefits to society will be achieved through outreach and educational activities including the mentoring of a post-doctorate research fellow, a graduate student, and an undergraduate student at the University of Alabama Tuscaloosa.

In the United States (US), various programs, policies, and regulations, ranging from product phaseout to new drinking water health advisories, are currently being developed to manage and mitigate the risks of PFAS contamination to human and ecosystem health. However, the effectiveness of these measures cannot be assessed accurately due to critical knowledge gaps including a lack of system-level knowledge and spatially integrated information about PFAS usages, emissions, and discharges throughout the entire product life cycles.

This CAREER project will address these knowledge gaps. The specific objectives of the research are to develop and validate system analysis and modeling tools to: 1) Quantify system-wide use, accumulation, emissions, and discharge of PFAS based on past and future product usage scenarios; 2) Spatially delineate PFAS accumulation and emissions; 3) Characterize the supply-chain and socio-economic drivers of PFAS use; and 4) Estimate the global sensitivity of PFAS accumulation and emissions to methodological and data uncertainties.

The successful completion of this project has the potential for transformative impact through 1) the generation of curated data sets on PFAS usages, emissions, and discharges in the US and 2) the development and validation of system analysis and modeling tools to guide and support PFAS risk management and mitigation programs in the US. To implement the educational and training goals of this CAREER project, the Principal Investigator (PI) proposes to develop and teach a new Industrial Ecology course for senior/graduate students at the University of Alabama (UA) Tuscaloosa.

In addition, the PI plans to mentor undergraduate students at UA Tuscaloosa and organize immersive summer workshops on material sustainability research to facilitate exchange, networking, and collaboration between faculty and students from US, Asian, and European academic institutions.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.