Element Six (E6), a pioneer in the development and manufacturing of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond solutions, and Lummus Technology, a global provider of process technologies and value-driven energy solutions, announced an exclusive global partnership that will leverage a unique solution to address the worldwide challenge of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) destruction.
“Destroying and eliminating PFAS from water is an important global challenge – a challenge that Lummus and Element Six fully embrace and can help address,” said Leon de Bruyn, President and Chief Executive Officer, Lummus Technology.
“By combining our technologies, we are uniquely positioned to offer efficient, scalable and viable methods to destroy these chemicals, safeguarding public health and protecting our environment for future generations.”
PFAS are a large range of synthetic fluorinated organic compounds that have been produced and widely used in industrial applications and consumer products since the 1930s. Commonly referred to as ’forever chemicals’, PFAS do not naturally break down in the environment and can cause serious health problems in high exposure cases, including cancer, decreased immunity, and infertility.
Consequently, government agencies across the world including in the U.S., UK, Europe, Australia and the Middle East are taking steps to regulate these compounds’ presence in drinking water and everyday consumer products.
“There are so many aspects of our daily lives which will benefit from the pioneering technology delivered through this partnership,” said Siobhán Duffy, CEO, Element Six. “From improving our environment, to safeguarding our health, this diamond-based electrochemical solution will address the critical global problem of PFAS, ensuring a better future can be built for everyone. I want to give huge credit to the Element Six and Lummus teams who have relentlessly tackled many technical challenges over the last 10 years to deliver this outstanding technology.”
This partnership combines Element Six’s leading patented boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrochemical oxidation technology with Lummus’ patented electro-oxidation technology and system integration for water and wastewater treatment. Lummus and Element Six have tested their combined technologies using free-standing BDD electrodes, which resulted in successful destruction of long and short chain PFAS. Free-standing BDD electrodes, as opposed to metal electrodes plated with BDD, enable the high current densities that destroy short-chain PFAS.
Lummus and Element Six are already making progress with customers to address numerous real-life applications leveraging this novel BDD electrochemical oxidation technology.
The solution delivered through this Element Six and Lummus collaboration is unique in that it uses free-standing boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes, rather than electrodes bonded to a substrate, and there are currently no other solutions in the market which leverage using free-standing BDD electrodes in electrochemical oxidation equipment.
A spokesperson said that the technology is robust and effective, proven to destroy even the short-chain compounds and has over 15 years of operation in non-PFAS applications. It’s also been field tested with various compositions of PFAS waste both in the presence of non-PFAS organics and without. Effectiveness of this process is proven by comparing a mass balance between organic fluoride prior to treatment to inorganic fluoride ions after treatment.
The process is commercially ready to handle a variety of applications with varying concentrations of PFAS and waste, and capable of small on-site or large centralised implementations.
The benefits of this technology stem from the amount and degree of electro oxidation that can occur, which is represented by the operating current density.
The system can operate at 2 orders of magnitude higher current density than any other electro oxidation technology on the market, allowing for a high capacity of destruction to take place in a small footprint.
The high current density also allows for the generation of a very high oxidation potential which allows for the destruction of short-chain PFAS where other E/O technologies with lower current densities have been reported to struggle.
In addition, Element Six’s patented BDD electrode technology can operate at the extremes of pH and prevent fouling via bi-polar operation.
Several pilot units are already available at a Lummus research facility in Texas, and the first international pilot study took place in the summer in England.
