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21 Dec 2020

Energy & environment

Technology trials set to remove PFAS from soil

A new technology that quickly removes and destroys hazardous PFAS chemicals from soil and groundwater is undergoing tests in the US.

If proven effective, the technology could soon be applied to cleaning up per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS, or so-called forever chemicals) that contaminate drinking water supplies serving about one-third of Americans.

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PFAS compounds are found in non-stick cookware, stain-proof carpets and pizza boxes, as well as in firefighting foams and other industrial products. They do not break down easily in the environment and find their way into human and animal tissues, potentially leading to serious diseases.

"Our approach to this problem is in two steps," said Thomas Boving, a University of Rhode Island (URI) professor of geosciences and civil engineering. "First, we flush the compounds out of the ground by pumping in a sugar molecule that has the ability to remove PFAS from the soil and groundwater. Then we pump the solution out of the ground and hit it with a chemical oxidation process to destroy the compounds."

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