Many companies need to remove PFAS from water but are concerned about the economics. It can cost millions to buy, replace, and incinerate the huge volumes of carbon or ion exchange resin needed to filter out these chemicals.
The good news, according to a new study from the independent Swedish research institute IVL, is that it is possible to economically remediate this water. In their test, IVL used ion exchange resin to remove PFAS from the water at a waste facility in Högbytorp, Sweden. Then, instead of simply replacing the spent resin, they “regenerated” the PFAS-saturated resin so it could be reused. The test showed the regenerated resin had the same capacity as the original.
ECT2 was not involved in this study in any way, but we have patents and pending applications for regeneration of resins that have been used to remove PFAS from water. We have deployed this technology in multiple full-scale projects around the world. We call this process SORBIX™ RePURE. IVL’s report suggests that “for the leachate volume and the water quality in leachate at Högbytorp, regeneration and recycling of the regeneration solution with nanofiltration would be economically justified if a good reduction of medium-length PFAS or very high reduction rates (95%) of the longer PFAS were needed”. With the focus on PFAS4, this is exactly the situation that most companies face.
IVL’s analysis was based on having a dedicated regeneration facility for each project. At ECT2 we are taking this idea a step further and are looking to establish a central regeneration system in Europe that through economies of scale will lower these costs even further.
