Water treatment technology aims to destroy PFAS on-site

By Marla Broadfoot

PFAS, often referred to as “forever chemicals,” have become an urgent public health issue because of their persistence in the environment and adverse health effects. With NIEHS funding, a woman-owned environmental remediation company called Enspired Solutions is trying to come up with a way to get rid of these ubiquitous chemicals for good.

The company recently received a small business innovation research grant from the NIEHS Superfund Research Program (SRP) to develop an innovative technology to permanently destroy PFAS contaminants in water. In addition, it has been awarded its second contract from the Department of Defense to deploy this technology at military sites, many of which have been contaminated by the widespread use of PFAS-laden firefighting foam.

“We are excited to support Enspired Solutions in their development of this promising new approach to PFAS,” said SRP Health Scientist Administrator Heather Henry, Ph.D. “The ability to not only capture but also destroy PFAS on-site addresses a critical gap in current remediation strategies and offers a more sustainable solution to this pervasive problem.”

Problematic PFAS

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of thousands of synthetic chemicals that have infiltrated nearly half of the U.S. drinking water supply. Traces of these compounds have been detected in 97% of people tested. Exposure to PFAS has been linked to various health issues, including immune toxicity, cancer, and metabolic diseases.

Traditional methods for removing PFAS from water rely on adsorption technologies, which use materials like carbon, resins, or membranes to capture contaminants. But this process often results in secondary waste that is costly and challenging to dispose of. For example, burning or burying this waste could release PFAS into air and water and further contribute to the spread of PFAS in the environment.

“What we are doing has a lot of potential for cost savings in PFAS remediation,” said Denise Kay, Ph.D., CEO of Enspired Solutions. “More importantly, it has huge implications for promoting healthier lives.”

Breaking bonds

The PFAS-destruction technology being championed by Enspired Solutions is called micelle-accelerated photoactivated reductive defluorination. This complicated name describes exactly how the process works. A proprietary chemical mixture traps PFAS particles in bubble-like molecular structures known as micelles. When these micelles are exposed to ultraviolet light, they generate a highly reactive electron, which acts like a hammer to break the stubborn carbon-fluoride bonds in the PFAS particles. Ideally, what remains are environmentally benign by-products that can be released to wastewater treatment plants.

With NIEHS funding, the Enspired Solutions team will test this process with a range of real PFAS-laden wastewater samples. They also plan to expand testing to go after PFAS in materials used for adsorption, including biochar and ion exchange resins.

“This system will provide a complete, on-site PFAS capture plus destruction solution that will eliminate secondary waste generation and put an end to the spread of PFAS,” said Suzanne Witt, Ph.D., research director at Enspired Solutions.

PFAS alone or in a mixture

An NIEHS-funded study found that mixtures of PFAS are more toxic than previously thought. Researchers at the University of Buffalo found that while individual PFAS compounds were not very toxic, when combined their cytotoxicity and neurotoxicity significantly increased. The findings were published in Environmental Science and Technology, a journal of the American Chemical Society. The discovery underscores the complexity of regulating these pervasive pollutants, which are found in numerous consumer products and have contaminated water supplies across the U.S.

(Marla Broadfoot, Ph.D., is a contract writer for the NIEHS Office of Communications and Public Liaison.)

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