University of Akron researchers (left to right) Brandon McReynolds, Dr. Pratik Gotad, and Dr. Sadhan Jana have developed a new filtration medium to remove PFAS from water.
A University of Akron researcher and his team might have developed one of the solutions for tackling Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), known colloquially as "forever chemicals."
Sadhan Jana, the university’s BF Goodrich endowed professor and associate dean for research at the College of Engineering and Polymer Science, said he and his team have developed a polymer filtration medium that effectively removes PFAS chemicals from water.
“As an analog, you have a filter called Brita, it’s a personalized filtration device,” Jana said. “Our idea is to use our gel in a filter like that. ... We call it a gel, but it’s a solid polymer that is extremely porous.”
When water passes through such a filter, it comes out with so few PFAS chemicals left in it — necessary to meet tightening EPA standards for PFAS — that Jana and his team had to develop ways to detect it with mass spectrometers.
By now, most people have heard of PFAS. And even those who haven’t are likely full of them, since PFAS have been found everywhere from Antarctic ice to the Marianna Trench, not to mention in nearly half of the tap water in the U.S.
The “forever chemicals” nickname is given because they take so long to break down. They were introduced in the 1940s by Dupont in the form of Teflon, which was then manufactured by 3M.
The PFAS chemicals were used in home products to wow consumers, like making nonstick surfaces for new pans to keep eggs and gooey cheese from sticking. It wasn’t long before PFAS were being used in all sorts of applications, from fire retardants to stainproof and waterproof clothing, electronics, drugs, home and personal cleaning products and even grease-resistant paper for things like microwave popcorn bags.
But they were widely adopted before their dangers were well known. Now they're everywhere, with more entering the atmosphere and water systems every day.
Jana hopes his technology can help solve this problem, at least for drinking water.
The “gel” that he and his team have developed is actually a structure of countless fibers, each much thinner than a human hair, according to Jana. “With the naked eye, we cannot see it,” he said.
Those fibers can be formed into various shapes, including shapes that nest inside water pipes to remove PFAS. Alternatively, they can be dipped into water to absorb the chemicals, he said.
Jana envisions his material as an important part of water filtration systems, including at big municipal water treatment plants, likely used alongside other filtration mediums.
“This media could be used in conjunction with other commercially available mediums,” Jana said. “But PFAS is something that most other media cannot remove.”
Jana is working to improve and commercialize the technology. He said he will form a company to take it to market later this year. Commercialization will take more time and work, Jana said, but he and his team already are participating in the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program, which entails interviewing 100 or more potential customers.
“We hope to explore the commercial potential and see if this technology would interest filtration facilities managers and the city municipalities,” Jana said. “There is still significant work to do in terms of product development. This may take several years to establish the commercial viability and ... there is a strong chance that the technology will go through a small business startup.”
He's already impressed some people though, including Dr. Carla McBain, a senior fellow at the University of Akron Research Foundation, industrial mentor with the I-Corps program and a director at Chemquest, a chemical-industry consulting firm based in Cincinnati.
“It really is a game-changer,” McBain said.
McBain said the most likely existing filtration medium for PFAS removal is charcoal, but she thinks Jana has invented a better alternative.
“You can use charcoal to remove PFAS, but the amount you would need, you’re talking an immense amount of charcoal. With this, the efficiency is much higher,” McBain said.
McBain said Jana has some work yet to do in areas such as proving his material can provide enough flow for high-volume applications and perfecting a solvent to take the PFAS out of the filter so the filter can be reused.
Jana said he has made significant process on both of those fronts already but agreed he has more work to do.
In the meantime, his work with I-Corps seems to be driving him to work harder.
“From our participation in regional I-Corps and conversations with various individuals in the filtration industry and PFAS destruction space, we believe there is potential for a market," Jana said.
“This would likely be people who are dealing with very dilute quantities of PFAS, who want to capture the PFAS in the parts per trillion quantities and then possibly destroy the concentrated waste. Two filter companies who are members of the UA consortium on coalescing filtration are interested in the technology.”
McBain sees potential for the technology at many levels, from water treatment plants to home filtration systems, especially if the filters can be regenerated as Jana plans.
“It will be much easier,” she said. “People can take their filter out, send it back, it gets regenerated and they keep going. This should be a really nice system ... adapted for everything from residential applications to industry up to municipal filtration."
Industry might be a particularly robust market, she suggests, because PFAS chemicals still are critical to some types of manufacturing, including the production of some drugs. Companies using the chemicals will need ways to remove them from the water they return to local water systems, she said.
In the meantime, though ...
“This is going to be a tool to remedy what we already have to clean up, McBain said. “I’m looking forward to seeing it commercialized someday. ... I think this is one (technology) that we’ll see produce some real benefit in for the world.”