Purification of firefighting water containing a fluorinated surfactant by reverse osmosis coupled to electrocoagulation-filtration

Clement Baudequin (1) , Estelle Couallier (1) , Mohammed Rakib (1) , Isabelle Deguerry (2) , Romain Severac (2) , Martial Pabon (3)

1 LGPM - Laboratoire de Génie des Procédés et Matériaux - EA 4038
2 DuPont de Nemours France SAS
3 DuPont de Nemours International

Extinguishments of large scale solvent fires produce large amounts of water that may contain various fluorinated surfactants depending on the type of fire fighting foam used. Due to their chemical nature, fluorinated parts of fl uorinated compounds are highly resistant to biochemical and advanced oxidation processes. Therefore the current treatment for the degradation of fluorinated surfactant from water used in fire extinguishment is high temperature incineration of the water in halogen resistant incinerators. This paper aims to propose a process for purifying fire fighting water containing fluorinated surfactants.

Mots clés: Fluorinated surfactant; Electrocoagulation; Filtration; Reverse osmosis; Firefi ghting; Water Treatment

Domaines: Génie des procédés; Matériaux

Clement Baudequin, Estelle Couallier, Mohammed Rakib, Isabelle Deguerry, Romain Severac, et al.. Purification of firefighting water containing a fluorinated surfactant by reverse osmosis coupled to electrocoagulation-filtration. Separation and Purification Technology, 2011, 76 (3), pp.275-282. ⟨10.1016/j.seppur.2010.10.016⟩. ⟨hal-00642296⟩