TUESDAY, MAY 2, 2023
In its first full-scale, commercial deployment, the PFAS Annihilator is set to remove and destroy per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in landfill leachate at a wastewater treatment facility in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The deployment arrives a year after independent nonprofit organization Battelle demonstrated a smaller-scale, pilot version of the unit. To aid with development and marketing, the organization also launched Revive Environmental.
“We are providing a solution for this significant challenge,” said Revive President and CEO David Trueba. “Our mission is to globally restore communities’ confidence by safely and permanently destroying PFAS contamination.”
Pilot Showcase
In May last year, Batelle launched a weeklong pilot demonstration for its total solution for the removal and destruction of PFAS.
According to the company at the time, the PFAS Annihilator Mobile Unit, a closed-loop, onsite destruction solution powered by supercritical water oxidation (SCWO), was used at a wastewater treatment facility operated by Heritage-Crystal Clean in western Michigan.
To breakdown the complex chemicals, the PFAS Annihilator pumps contaminated wastewater into a system where it is mixed with hydrogen peroxide, isopropanol as a co-fuel and sodium hydroxide as a neutralizing agent. Afterwards, the substance passes through a heat exchanger where a furnace removes the salts.
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Next, the remaining water goes into a reactor at a temperature and pressure designed to break the carbon-fluorine bond. The resulting output is carbon dioxide and hydrofluoric acid, which is neutralized with sodium hydroxide that turns it into inert salts and thus, eliminates any remaining harmful byproducts.
In trials of more than 30 PFAS-contaminated sample types, the PFAS Annihilator consistently demonstrated more than 99.99% destruction of total PFAS, according to reports.
The next iteration of the mobile unit was reportedly being modified to have an increased capacity for wastewater intake and treatment. Additionally, the team was working to automate the process so units can operate without manual intervention, thus bringing the technology to scale to clean industrial size containers of wastewater.
First Commercial Deployment
Transferring its patented technologies for the PFAS Annihilator and GAC Renew, Revive aims to isolate, remove and destroy PFAS chemicals in aqueous waste streams and other sources of contamination. Battelle was joined in the launch by Viking Global Investors.
According to the latest release, the PFAS Annihilator is not limited to destroying PFAS in landfill leachate, as it can process aqueous PFAS waste from multiple sites and sources and for other applications that include industrial wastewater, soil remediation and Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) firefighting foams.
As part of its growth campaign, Revive reports it is actively seeking partners for these different applications to offer customers full lifecycle solutions that safely and effectively eliminate PFAS contamination and the associated liability. Revive’s deployment with Heritage-Crystal Clean is the first example of such a partnership.
At the wastewater treatment facility owned by Heritage-Crystal Clean, the PFAS Annihilator is handling concentrated waste from more than 160,000 gallons of leachate per day and is the first permitted solution in the United States.
Revive reports that Heritage-Crystal Clean will work with multiple landfills to transport, separate and concentrate their leachate. As the PFAS Annihilator comes up to full capacity, it will process between 300 to 500 gallons of concentrated landfill leachate per day (representing 300,000 to 500,000 gallons of raw leachate) to completely destroy the PFAS contained in it.
Afterwards, once the contaminated fluids are processed by the PFAS Annihilator, the only byproducts remaining are clean effluent water, carbon dioxide and inert salts. Heritage Crystal-Clean will then discharge the clean effluent water to publicly owned water treatment works.
Additionally, Revive notes that it is actively taking capacity commitments for the additional six units scheduled for 2023 and expects to add significantly more units in 2024. Field demonstrations and treatability assessments for landfill leachate, industrial wastewater, soil remediation and AFFF are also now underway.
Tagged categories: Battelle Memorial Institute; Environmental Controls; Environmental Protection; hazardous materials; Hazardous waste; Hazards; Health & Safety; Health and safety; Program/Project Management; Project Management; Safety; Toxicity; Water/Wastewater
