CHALLENGES

PFAS contaminants in water and wastewater cannot be broken down through traditional biological or chemical processes.
The current remediation options—granular activated carbon adsorption, single-use anion exchange, and reverse osmosis—are non-destructive, expensive, and merely transfer the PFASs to a solid or concentrated waste stream.
The large waste streams require costly destruction by high-temperature incineration, disposal to hazardous landfill sites, or deep-well injection, the efficacy and safety of which are still uncertain.
Both carbon and anion exchange resin treatment processes have extremely low affinities for PFASs; thus, they do not remove all PFASs of concern.
Emerging destruction technologies require excessive energy and/or chemical input, and extensive reaction residence times as degradation proceeds in a multi-stepwise manner, breaking the long-chain species down to toxic shorter-chain byproducts.