It’s no secret that polyfluoroalkyl substances — colloquially known as PFAS or “forever chemicals” — are cause for concern.
PFAS are a group of more than 10,000 human-made chemicals that often have water, heat, or oil-resistant properties.
Found in plenty of domestic products like fabrics, food wrappers, non-stick pans, fire extinguishers — and even the water in both our natural environment and kitchen taps — PFAS are known for causing a myriad of health problems like cancer and diabetes.
Health officials across the globe have been working to figure out ways to reduce PFAS levels in drinking water, but this often comes at a high cost — both financially and on the planet.
According to Euronews, it could cost up to £21 billion (or about $27 billion) to remove all forever chemicals from the U.K.’s sewage — let alone the rest of the world.
Plus, current methods, like carbon and resin water filters, aren’t always effective. Adsorbents and separation methods can effectively remove PFAS from water, but they don’t eradicate the chemicals in question. And incineration — which was long considered the only way to break down PFAS permanently — likely just disperses the chemicals into the air instead.
However, Swiss startup Oxyle — co-founded by Dr. Fajer Mushtaq, a nanotechnology engineer — has a different approach.
“There are very few methods that we know of that permanently and safely destroy PFAS,” Mushtaq told TNW. “But it can be done.”
The way Oxyle does it? By oxidizing the chemicals, or chipping away at the bonds between molecules.
“We are purely destruction tech; we are oxidizing and reducing these chemicals,” Mushtaq told Euronews.
“Let’s say you have a carbon-hydrogen bond. We break it. You have a carbon-fluorine bond, [we] break it. At the end of the treatment, all you’re left with is CO2, water molecules, some fluorides, sulfates, and minerals — basically, building blocks.”
Building blocks that don’t harm the health of people or the planet.
This chemical process isn’t new. In fact, many other companies do the same, usually by passing electricity through electrodes or applying UV light to the wastewater.
But Oxyle makes things simpler, using mechanical energy like vibrations produced by bubbles or water flow to target the molecules.
It works like this: First, Oxyle applies a nanoporous catalyst material (created during Mushtaq’s doctoral thesis research) to the water. Then, it is activated by water movements (the aforementioned bubbles), to create a chemical reaction. Then, the reaction generates oxidative molecules that break down organic pollutants (PFAS) to harmless materials (like carbon and fluorides).
“It gets activated and starts to split the water and forms different chemical species that are able to break the bonds of these PFAS molecules,” Mushtaq explained.
It works well, too. According to Mushtaq, each Oxyle reactor can treat about 10,000 liters of water an hour.
And it’s a lot less energy-intensive. Using bubbles reduces the company’s energy use by between 15% and 60%.
“Energy is the biggest driver of cost for destruction tech,” Mushtaq told Euronews, meaning her startup can do this vital work for less than its competitors.
Still, in many countries, members of the public pay for the processes that treat their water, and advocates suggest that companies and governments should be footing the bill.
Mushtaq said the clients Oxyle targets are “mostly industrial players,” or “the ones who are either producing these chemicals and have to treat the wastewater or have contaminated the facilities around and need to do remediation.”
Last year, Oxyle completed a pilot with Swiss chemical company CIMO, treating groundwater contaminated by the company’s PFAS. According to a case study from the company, Oxyle removed 99.2% of the contaminated materials every day for six months.
Although this is a promising approach to a major issue, even the scientists most exhilarated by these discoveries know that it can’t solve the root problem, calling for PFAS regulation by government bodies to help end the ongoing pollution.
The European Union does have a proposed ban on PFAS, though many other individual countries — like the U.K. — aren’t as progressive.
But for Oxyle, the treatment of waste and groundwater will remain a priority — whether or not elected leaders feel the same.
“As a company that does remediation of PFAS, we will be existing for decades,” Mushtaq told Euronews.
And the job is just getting started.
“The imperative to eliminate PFAS from our drinking water has never been more critical,” Oxyle’s website reads. “Our mission is clear: restore and protect our waters from micropollutants — down to the very last drop.”
