PFAS remediation Archives

PFAS remediation

September 16, 2024

Microbes to the rescue? Companies probe PFAS cleanup solutions

By Lydia Larsen

Tim Repas was tired of hauling dirt to landfills. As an environmental consultant in Canada’s oil fields, where the soil is often laden with health-harming petroleum hydrocarbon chemicals, Repas felt he spent too much time moving contaminated soil around and not enough time trying to eliminate the dangers posed by the compounds.

In 2019, he left the fields and put his degree in biochemistry to work, founding Fixed Earth Innovations, a company aimed at employing biological systems to address environmental challenges. One of the company’s first targets: The persistent and pervasive class of chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

PFAS are widely used, including in firefighting foam, stain and water-resistant coatings and food packaging, and are ubiquitous in the environment, making exposure almost impossible to avoid. Some types of PFAS have been linked to health defects including cancer, reproductive problems and birth defects.

Making PFAS even more problematic is the fact that they are considered virtually impossible to break down, earning the moniker “forever chemicals.”

“We could spend 20 years trying to solve [the problem], but I don’t think we have 20 years to solve PFAS,” said Repas said.

The need to find tools to address PFAS contamination in the United States was made more urgent last spring when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced new limits on two types of common PFAS in drinking water. Utilities required to meet these new standards are left to mostly rely on technologies that can remove PFAS from drinking water, but don’t actually destroy the compounds.

But researchers say hope is on the horizon. Emerging evidence suggests that microbes, small organisms invisible to the naked eye found in soil, air, water and even the human body, may be able to assist in breaking down PFAS.

January 21, 2024

Research ramps up but PFAS pollution remains tough to tackle

By Shannon Kelleher

As researchers rush to tackle global contamination from a class of toxic chemicals known as PFAS, a new study demonstrates a novel way to detect the substances in wastewater – but also underscores how far scientists are from figuring out how to effectively overcome this worldwide threat to human and environmental health.

The new method makes use of a sensor to identify one type of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in heavily contaminated water based on changes in light emissions from metals on the device’s surface, according to a Jan. 16 study in the journal Analytical Chemistry. The researchers plan to develop the early model in to a portable device, according to a press release.

Current PFAS detection methods take place in a laboratory using a tool called a mass spectrometer, which charges molecules in a sample and then accelerate them using magnetic or electric fields so that scientists can identify them.

“Existing approaches are time-consuming,” said Zoe Pikramenou, a professor at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom who is an author of the study. “Our approach offers significant advantages of greater speed, ease of analysis, and reduced cost over currently-used methods.”

The prototype can so far only measure one PFAS chemical out of thousands. And although the sensor appears to be sensitive enough to illuminate PFAS in industrial wastewater, it may take another decade before the technology can be used for drinking water, which contains much lower levels of the chemicals, said Pikramenou.

Many other promising new technologies to detect so-called “forever chemicals”, which do not naturally break down, remain in the early stages of development. The Biden administration has called on federal agencies to restrict PFAS from entering US water, air, land, and food; set goals for the government to better assess and reduce PFAS exposure; clean up existing pollution; and expand health effects information.