03 Feb WARF spotlighting new method for breaking down PFAS
WARF spotlighting new method for breaking down PFAS
WARF is promoting a newly developed process for breaking down PFAS, which could offer another tool for addressing “forever chemicals.”
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation touted the technology as one of its “top licensing prospects” in its clean technology portfolio, based on research conducted at UW-Madison.
In remarks provided by WARF, graduate student Katelyn Michael notes “we don’t want to go to all of the effort” of removing the contaminant from the environment without having a good way to get rid of it later.
“Our technology is able to efficiently and effectively degrade PFAS … when we look at this compared to different technologies that have been reported in the literature, we’re able to accomplish this in orders of magnitude less,” she said. “And because of the scale of this problem, any cost and energy savings is really important.”
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, were first created in the 1940s and have been used in numerous household products, leading to widespread contamination of the environment. While the name refers to a group of thousands of different chemicals, research has uncovered that exposure to some of them can cause serious health problems.