In January, treatment of PFAS-impacted groundwater started at the LIFE-SOuRCE Test Site in Spain. ESOLVE, an engineering consultancy firm, and participant in LIFE-SOURCE project, has initiated the first operations with Anion EXchange resins (AEX) technology to remove these fluorinated, manmade substances from groundwater. The project is the first in Spain to treat PFAS contaminated groundwater.
In collaboration with LIFE-SOuRCE colleagues, ESOLVE has designed and built the first treatment unit of its kind in Spain. With solar panels, that will reduce the carbon footprint, the AEX relies on the property that certain resins can attract negatively charged ions (like some PFAS) and remove them from water. The initial results have been evaluated, indicating AEX technology to be very promising and suitable for treating groundwater from a real site.
AEX resin technology is one of three technologies that will be combined at the LIFE-SOuRCE Spanish Site to optimize PFAS elimination from groundwater. Surface Active Foam Fractionation (SAFF®) is the second technology that will be implemented and tested at the site. Envytech Solutions AB (ENVY), a remediation specialist, and participant in LIFE-SOuRCE project, provides the SAFF technology that is developed and manufactured by EPOC Enviro Australia, and offers treatment of long chained PFAS using only air – no consumables, producing only minimum amounts of waste in the form of a PFAS concentrate. The SAFF Unit arrived in December at the Spanish Site and will be integrated and operated by ESOLVE in collaboration with ENVY and will serve as a pre-treatment step to the AEX resin. The third technology applied at the Spanish test site will be the Electro Chemical Oxidation (EO).
