PFAS are among the most persistent environmental challenges of our time: they are found in everyday products such as cookware, carpets, or waterproof coatings and can enter our water streams and bodies through wastewater, soil, and industrial processes. This article shows why traditional filtration often merely shifts the problem instead of solving it – and how BDD electrolysis from pro aqua can help with targeted PFAS remediation.
PFAS – the so-called forever chemicals – are water-, grease-, and dirt-repellent, chemically extremely stable, and occur in numerous industrial applications and everyday products. Exactly these properties make them useful – and problematic at the same time.
PFAS hardly degrade in the environment. They can enter groundwater, surface water, and drinking water – and ultimately also permanently enter the organism of living beings – via wastewater, industrial emissions, landfills, firefighting foams, contaminated soils, or polluted production sites. In Europe, regulatory pressure is growing significantly: PFAS are increasingly monitored, threshold values are being tightened, and companies, municipalities, and operators of technical plants must address the question of how PFAS can actually be removed or destroyed from water streams.
pro aqua offers a technological solution for this: boron-doped diamond electrodes, in short BDDE, for the electrochemical treatment of PFAS-contaminated water. The decisive difference to many traditional methods: PFAS are not merely filtered out of a water stream and concentrated elsewhere. Under suitable process conditions, PFAS can be electrochemically degraded.
PFAS in Drinking Water: Why Forever Chemicals Are a Growing Problem
PFAS stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. It is not a single chemical, but a large group of substances comprising several thousand compounds. Many PFAS are particularly persistent, partially mobile in water, and toxicologically relevant. Therefore, they are in the focus of environmental authorities, water management, industry, and the public.
The problem is not only the acute contamination of individual sites. PFAS can remain in soil and water over long periods of time. High concentrations can occur at hotspots – such as former fire training areas, airports, industrial sites, and landfills. From there, PFAS can migrate into the groundwater and make remediations technically demanding and economically costly.
For operators, this means: PFAS is no longer a niche topic. Anyone treating process water, wastewater, groundwater, firefighting runoff, or contaminated concentrates needs robust methods that not only lower measured values short-term, but make the pollutant stream manageable in the long term.
PFAS in Everyday Life: Cookware, Carpets, and Waterproofing
Many people search for PFAS because they know the term from their daily lives: PFAS in cookware, in carpets, in outdoor clothing, in food packaging, or waterproofing sprays.The reason for this broad usage: PFAS were used wherever water-, grease-, or dirt-repellent properties were required.
For non-stick cookware, it is mainly about coated surfaces. For carpets and textiles, PFAS were frequently used to repel stains or let liquids bead off. Paper and cardboard packaging for greasy food were also a typical application field in the past.
For consumers, it is important to know: Not every single item is automatically an acute health risk. But the broad application explains why PFAS are detectable today in the environment, wastewater streams, and partially also in food chains. For companies and public authorities, the decisive question is therefore not only: “Where were PFAS used?” But rather: “What happens to contaminated water, contaminated concentrates, and PFAS-containing residues?”
Read more: PFAS in Everyday Life: Correctly Categorizing Cookware, Carpets, and Drinking Water
Removing PFAS: Why Filtration Alone Is Often Not Enough
Traditional PFAS treatment frequently works with activated carbon, ion exchangers, membrane processes, or reverse osmosis. These processes can remove or significantly reduce PFAS from water streams. However, they share a common basic problem: PFAS are usually not destroyed, but shifted.
The result is a contaminated secondary product. Activated carbon must be regenerated or disposed of. Ion exchange resins become loaded. Membrane processes generate concentrates. Exactly here begins the next technical challenge: What happens to the PFAS-rich concentrate?
A sustainable PFAS remediation must therefore think beyond pure separation. In many cases, a two-stage approach makes sense: First, PFAS are concentrated from large volumes of water. Subsequently, the concentrated stream is treated in a targeted manner. BDD electrolysis is particularly interesting precisely for these highly contaminated or pre-concentrated water streams.
BDD Electrolysis for PFAS Degradation: How the Technology Works
BDD electrolysis is based on boron-doped diamond electrodes. Diamond as a material is extremely stable. Through boron doping, the diamond becomes electrically conductive and can be used as an electrode. During electrolysis, highly reactive oxidative species, including hydroxyl radicals, are generated at the surface of the electrode.
These highly reactive species can oxidatively attack organic compounds. With PFAS, this is particularly challenging because the carbon-fluorine bond is among the strongest bonds in organic chemistry.
Exactly for this reason, PFAS are considered forever chemicals. Electrochemical oxidation with BDD is one of the processes investigated and deployed in research and technical applications as a promising approach for the destruction of various PFAS compounds.
The goal is not merely “filter out, problem gone”. The goal is the oxidative degradation of the PFAS molecules – ideally down to inorganic end products such as fluoride, carbon dioxide, and potentially sulfate, depending on the respective PFAS structure.
PFAS and BDD Electrolysis: Where Application Makes Particular Sense
BDD electrolysis is not a panacea for any arbitrary water stream. Seriously considered, the technology is particularly strong where PFAS are present in relevant concentrations or have been previously enriched. Exactly that is technically and economically decisive.
a. PFAS in Highly Contaminated Groundwater and Firefighting Foam Residues
A typical application field is heavily contaminated water, such as fire training areas, airports, fire department locations, or industrial security zones. There, PFAS concentrations can be significantly higher than in normal surface or drinking water. At such hotspots, a direct or combined treatment with BDD cells can be useful. This is particularly relevant when remediation is aimed not just at shifting, but at actual degradation.
b. PFAS in Pre-Concentrated Wastewater Streams
For large volumes of water, it is often more efficient to concentrate PFAS first. Processes such as reverse osmosis, nanofiltration, activated carbon, or ion exchangers can remove PFAS from the main stream. What remains is a smaller volume with a higher PFAS concentration. Precisely this concentrated stream is a suitable candidate for BDD electrolysis. As the more selectively the contaminated stream is treated, the better energy input, reaction conditions, and process management can be controlled.
c. PFAS in the Regeneration of Adsorption Materials
Another relevant field is the regeneration of adsorption materials. Activated carbon or ion exchangers adsorb PFAS. During regeneration, PFAS are desorbed again and are subsequently present in a regeneration solution. Compared to the original water stream, this solution is significantly more heavily contaminated. BDD electrolysis can start right here: not at the diluted overall stream, but at the PFAS-rich regenerate.
PFAS Degradation: Why Process Understanding Is More Important Than Buzzwords
PFAS behave differently. Short-chain PFAS are often more mobile and harder to remove than long-chain compounds. At the same time, accompanying substances can influence the treatment. A water stream from an industrial plant cannot be equated with a groundwater stream at a former fire training area.
Therefore, serious PFAS remediation is always project-specific. It begins with analytics, process understanding, and a clear definition of goals. Only after that can a treatment concept be created. BDD electrolysis is particularly strong where it is deployed selectively: for highly contaminated waters, concentrates, and regeneration solutions. In combination with separation, pretreatment, and monitoring, an effective overall concept can be created.
Removing PFAS: Our Solution with Boron-Doped Diamond Electrodes
pro aqua develops and produces boron-doped diamond electrodes and BDD cells in Austria. The technology is the result of many years of development work and is used in various areas of water treatment.
Conclusion
PFAS will accompany us as an environmental and water problem in the long term. Cookware, carpets, and outdoor products explain why PFAS have arrived in everyday life. However, the technical challenge lies in contaminated water streams, soils, industrial processes, and remediation projects.
Anyone who just separates PFAS must subsequently deal with contaminated residues. Anyone who wants to degrade PFAS needs robust technologies and a clear process concept. Boron-doped diamond electrodes start right here – especially for highly contaminated or pre-concentrated water streams. pro aqua delivers high-performance BDD cells for demanding applications in PFAS treatment for this purpose.
Would you like to learn more about this topic? Feel free to read the following articles:
- PFAS in the Body: How Dangerous Are Forever Chemicals to Our Health?
- Removing PFAS from Wastewater: Target Treatment of Industrial Water Streams
- PFAS in Everyday Life: Correctly Categorizing Cookware, Carpets, and Drinking Water
- Removing PFAS from Water: Elimination of Forever Chemicals with BDD Electrolysis
Sources
https://echa.europa.eu/-/echa-publishes-updated-pfas-restriction-proposal
https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/per-and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances-pfas
https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/newsroom/news/forever-chemicals-in-water-bodies
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