- Researchers have discovered a way to eliminate ‘forever chemicals’, or PFAS, which usually take hundreds or thousands of years to break down.
- These harmful chemicals are found in numerous everyday applications and can be ingested by humans through drinking water.
- The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2024 lists pollution as the 10th most pressing threat to society, both in the short and long term.
How long does it take toxic “forever chemicals” to break down?
It’s a trick question, because as their nickname suggests, they don’t break down … at least not for hundreds or potentially thousands of years.
However, researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) have developed a new water treatment that filters and removes harmful forever chemicals – or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to use their proper name – from drinking water, safely, efficiently and permanently.
Where do PFAS come from?
You can’t see them with the naked eye. But with more than 4,700 substances in use, PFAS applications are more than likely in your home or workplace and often end up in the environment – specifically seeping into rainwater, soil, sediment and drinking water, where they can be ingested by humans and animals.
Industry has been using these manufactured chemicals since the 1940s: including to waterproof wet weather gear; make non-stick cookware non-stick; in stain-resistant fabrics and carpets; some cosmetics; firefighting foams; products that are manufactured to be grease-, water- or oil-resistant; fast-food packaging; household products like shampoo and dental floss… the list goes on.
The cost to society of PFAS has recently been estimated at $17.5 trillion annually, while the manufacturers themselves make $4 billion per year in profits, reported the Guardian.
How are PFAS removed from drinking water?
Lead scientist Dr Mohseni and his team at UBC have developed a unique silica-based material with a high capacity to absorb a range of PFAS from drinking water. The reusable material acts like a filter, trapping most of the harmful particles, which are then destroyed using unique electrochemical and photochemical processes developed by the researchers.
Our absorbing media captures up to 99% of PFAS particles and can also be regenerated and potentially reused. This means that when we scrub off the PFAS from these materials, we do not end up with more highly toxic solid waste that will be another major environmental challenge.
Lead scientist Dr Mohseni
Separate research by scientists at Arizona State University in the US, uses microorganisms to break down PFAS.
Led by 2018 Stockholm Water Prize winner Bruce Rittmann, the team uses a specially modified membrane known as MCfR that causes a reaction in water, to attack the chemical composition of PFAS particles it contains. The water is then treated by microorganisms in a special reactor (MBfR) to break down the remaining pollutant particles, which possess among the strongest carbon bonds in chemistry.
We use the MCfR to knock off a few to all of the fluorines, and then we hand that water with those compounds over to the microorganisms in the MBfR, and they finish the job.
2018 Stockholm Water Prize winner Bruce Rittmann
This article was published on 11 April 2023 and updated on 17 April 2024.
Photo credit: Rittmann, director of the Biodesign Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology
