Automating Solvent Extraction for EPA 1633A: A Closer Look at Increasing Efficiency in the Lab

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in the Environment
Oral Presentation

Prepared by A. Stell, B. Liu, L. Abu-Al-Halaweh
CEM Corporation, 3100 Smith Farm Rd., Matthews, NC, 28106, United States


Contact Information: [email protected]; 704-821-7015

ABSTRACT

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of synthetic chemicals that pose significant environmental and health risks due to their persistence and bioaccumulation. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published 1633A “Analysis of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Aqueous, Solid, Biosolids, and Tissue Samples by LC-MS/MS,” providing methodology to quantitate 40 PFAS in these environmentally important sample types. Solvent extraction is utilized in this method to extract PFAS from solid sample matrices; however, the manual process described is often labor-intensive, inconsistent, and prone to human error. Presented here is the EDGE PFAS™ system, an automated solvent extraction system, that can rapidly extract PFAS from solid samples using the same sample sizes, solvents, volumes, and cycles as described in 1633A. The final extract is filtered and ready for cleanup and analysis. This automated process significantly reduces manual intervention and increases throughput, making it a viable solution for PFAS testing labs. To show efficacy of the method, both soil and tissue samples contaminated with PFAS were extracted for this study. The results highlight that automating the solvent extraction provides comparable results to the manual extraction described in 1633A. Using the EDGE PFAS for automated solvent extraction offers a rapid and reliable workflow for PFAS testing.