An Ohio company has become the first in the United States to find a way to destroy toxic firefighting foam that was piling up in warehouses across the state with no safe way to dispose of it.
Since the 1960s, firefighters in Ohio have been putting out oil and gas fires using aqueous film-forming foam, known as AFFF. This approach is effective at extinguishing liquid fires, but it carries a risk: The foam has been shown to contain high concentrations of PFAS.
PFAS are a class of chemicals that have been linked to serious health problems, including cancer, and they are notoriously difficult to get rid of.
That’s why the company’s “PFAS Annihilator” is so important: It is the only technology proven to completely destroy PFAS in this firefighting foam.
The Ohio EPA officially launched the AFFF take-back program in March.
Over the course of five collections and five months later, over 13,000 gallons of AFFF were collected and delivered to Revive Environmental, the company that manages the disposal of the destroyer.
Adriana Martinez-Smiley
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WYSO
Technology that is one step ahead of the competition
These include 20 different variants of the foam produced over the last 35 years.
Over 200 gallons of foam collected in the state were destroyed.
The PFAS destroyer can convert AFFF – one of the most common sources of PFAS pollution – into water with undetectable levels of PFAS. The Columbus-based company even received approval to discharge the water back into the city’s sewer system in mid-July.
David Trueba, CEO of Revive Environmental, said this technology is important because even a small amount of these chemicals can pose a threat to human health.
“And it’s very important to make sure that we close the loop and that PFAS are no longer present after processing. And that’s where the closed-loop annihilator really is a real eye-catcher, because we can document what goes in and we can document that the PFAS are not going out,” Trueba said.
Adriana Martinez-Smiley
/
WYSO
The device works by using pressure and heat to break the fluorinated bonds that make PFAS so durable. This is different from incineration, which can end up in aerosol form for PFAS, Trueba said.
“Combustion is ideal for things that you can burn completely. For things that you can’t completely destroy, there are products of incomplete combustion, which means you don’t burn everything. These then go back into the atmosphere,” he said.
More destroyed foam follows
This is just the first phase of the program. The company estimates that the state’s fire departments have 150,000 gallons of AFFF.
Anne Vogel, director of the Ohio EPA, said other states in the region are also excited about the success of the program.
“We are really excited about this technology. We have proven that it works. Our goal is to destroy everything we have collected in January. And to our knowledge, Revive is well on its way to achieving that goal,” Vogel said.
The company has also signed contracts with the U.S. government to remove PFAS from groundwater. New Hampshire recently launched its own AFFF take-back program using Annihilator technology.
