PFAS Separation and Destruction: Why a Lifecycle Approach is the Future of Compliance

The management of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) is at a critical inflection point. Driven by tightening regulations, the focus has shifted from simple removal to complete PFAS separation and destruction. For engineers, consultants, and industrial operators, addressing these contaminants now requires a comprehensive strategy that goes beyond temporary fixes. By integrating field-proven PFAS removal technologies with full-lifecycle management, organizations can adopt regulatory-compliant PFAS solutions that reduce costs, minimize risks, and ensure lasting results.

Separation technologies are the established workhorses of PFAS remediation. Granular activated carbon (GAC), ion exchange (IX) resins, and reverse osmosis (RO) are recognized by the EPA as Best Available Technologies (BAT) for removing PFAS from water. PFAS separation technologies are effective at pulling the compounds from a primary water source, but they do not solve the underlying problem of removing PFAS from the overall environment. Instead, PFAS water treatment systems transfer contaminants from a liquid to a solid or concentrated liquid medium, creating a secondary, PFAS-laden waste stream that requires further management. 

This "liability shift" means the problem is not eliminated but merely contained. While there are some commercial offerings that reactivate or regenerate GAC, generally the resulting spent media or concentrate must be disposed of, and current practices  are fraught with significant challenges:

• Landfilling: Though widely available, landfills pose a long-term risk of re-contamination. PFAS can leach from the disposed media back into the environment through landfill leachate, perpetuating the contamination cycle.
• Incineration: High-temperature incineration can theoretically destroy PFAS, but capacity is limited, and costs are high. There are also growing concerns about the potential for incomplete combustion, which could release harmful fluorinated byproducts and other products of incomplete combustion (PICs) into the atmosphere. 
• GAC reactivation process essentially incinerates the adsorbed PFAS after removing it from the GAC media. Hence, all issues with incineration potentially apply to GAC reactivation.
• Inability to tackle all PFAS compounds: The EPA lists over 14,000 unique PFAS chemical compounds – and PFAS molecule chain length affects which specific compounds are removed by conventional media.
• Expense of media replacement: The excessive cost of media replacement is mostly dealt with by utilities – and changes in upstream water quality due to industrial discharges can have a significant effect on the frequency, and thus cost, of media replacement.

To permanently break the cycle of PFAS contamination and eliminate associated liability, destruction is the only viable long-term solution. Unlike separation technologies alone, destruction technologies are specifically engineered to break the exceptionally strong carbon-fluorine bond, which is what gives PFAS their environmental persistence.

The landscape of destruction technologies is evolving rapidly, with several promising approaches moving from pilot stages to commercial demonstration.

• Electrochemical oxidation (EOx): EOx is a leading technology for destroying PFAS in liquid waste streams. The process applies an electrical current to specialized electrodes in a reactor, generating powerful hydroxyl radicals that attack and mineralize PFAS molecules from organic chemicals into harmless components like water, carbon dioxide, and inorganic ions. EOx operates at ambient temperature and pressure and has a relatively small footprint.

• Supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) and hydrothermal alkaline Treatment (HALT): These technologies use high temperatures (>374 °C) and pressures to create conditions where PFAS compounds are broken down. Their extreme operating conditions require specialized equipment and significant energy input, which can mean mobility challenges, and they have yet to be proven at scale.

• Other emerging methods: Technologies like non-thermal plasma are also being developed to break down PFAS in liquid concentrates. For solid waste streams like contaminated biosolids, advanced thermal processes such as pyrolysis and gasification as well as SCWO and HALT show promise for PFAS destruction, though more research is needed to fully characterize air emissions and confirm complete mineralization.

The most robust and cost-effective path to compliance is not a choice between separation and destruction but an intelligent integration of both into a seamless, end-to-end process. A successful strategy must encompass the full lifecycle of PFAS management.

1. Assessment and monitoring: A successful treatment strategy begins with a thorough understanding of the problem. Aquatech’s applied lab testing services at our Creekside, PA center carry out in-depth analysis to identify the most effective PFAS removal pathways before costly field trials, ensuring regulatory-compliant PFAS solutions at lower cost. The applied testing laboratory is fully equipped with membrane, fractionation, GAC, IX and electro-chemical process benchtop and pilot units. The applied testing equipment is supported with quick turnaround times on testing results (EPA 1621, EPA 1633, and ASTM 8421) using onsite combustion ion chromatograph and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LCMS/MS). 
2. Optimized separation and concentration: The first operational step is to efficiently remove PFAS from the primary water source using established technologies such as nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, foam fractionation, or a combination of these. The goal is to concentrate the PFAS into the smallest manageable volume, as this significantly optimizes the capital and operating cost of destruction. The choice of separation technology depends heavily on influent water quality, target PFAS compounds, and overall treatment goals.
3. Final destruction: The concentrated waste stream from the separation step is then fed into an appropriate destruction unit (e.g., EOx). This final step closes the loop, breaking down PFAS into benign components and permanently eliminating the environmental liability.

This lifecycle approach transforms PFAS management from a circular perpetual challenge into a solvable engineering problem. The industrial and remediation sectors, which often deal with higher PFAS concentrations, are expected to be the earliest adopters of these integrated destruction technologies, which are now available as modular PFAS treatment systems. 

As regulations tighten and public concern around PFAS continues to grow, relying solely on separation methods or temporary disposal is no longer a viable strategy. To truly eliminate risk and protect communities, operators must adopt an integrated approach that combines PFAS separation and destruction into one seamless process.

Aquatech’s field-proven PFAS removal technologies are designed to deliver lasting, regulatory-compliant PFAS solutions, with flexible rental options for operators of all sizes. By leveraging advanced PFAS destruction technologies such as electrochemical oxidation, supported by lab-scale PFAS testing services, Aquatech engineers solutions that are modular, flexible, and right-sized for each site.