The length of PFAS chains significantly impacts the environmental sustainability, social impacts, and financial viability for both GAC and IX systems. IX resins were identified as a cost-effective adsorbent for removing both long and short-chain PFAS compared to GAC adsorbents. Previous research indicates that IX systems have a higher adsorption capacity than GAC and are more effective at removing long-chain PFAS, like PFOA and PFOS, compared to short-chain PFAS. Studies show that GAC also adsorbs long-chain PFAS better than short-chain PFAS. This indicates that both IX resins and GAC adsorbents exhibit higher adsorption capacity for long-chain PFAS compared to short-chain PFAS. In another study, sludge-based GAC exhibited the lowest removal rate (35.3-57.8%) for short-chain PFAS compounds, likely due to their high solubility and low hydrophobicity. 104,105 Increasing the empty bed contact time can enhance the efficiency of GAC in removing short-chain PFAS, offering protection against the rapid breakthrough of short-chain PFAS. GAC and IX treatments require a longer empty bed contact time for short-chain PFAS compared to long-chain PFAS. Both long-chain and shortchain PFAS pose significant social impacts, primarily through health risks. Compared to longchain PFAS, treating short-chain PFAS requires a higher media usage rate, which increases environmental impacts. This includes higher values for carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects, as well as global warming potential, indicating greater health damage compared to longchain PFAS. Consequently, the treatment of short-chain PFAS may lead to higher overall environmental, social, and financial damage.