Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are an emerging contaminant of concern that are commonly found in the environment. The US EPA has concluded that “there is evidence that exposure to PFAS can lead to adverse outcomes in humans.”
Historically, PFAS have been removed from water using Granulated Activated Carbon (GAC) filters. As awareness of PFAS contamination has increased, Anion Exchange Resins (AIX) have been developed to target PFAS. Current filtration medias require extensive contact time, creating large footprints in order to remove even small amounts of PFAS in water.
PQ-Osorb® media is a unique formulation of our patented Osorb® media platform, specifically designed to remove PFAS the complete range of PFAS compounds, ranging from the historically common perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) to the increasingly more common but much harder to treat short-chain compounds such as perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA).
PFAS remediation with PQ-Osorb® media is perfect for:
Granulated Activated Carbon (GAC) media and Anion Exchange (AIX) resins are used to remove PFAS. Though each of these technologies can reduce PFAS to safe levels, PQ-Osorb® media is able to do so with a much smaller physical and at lower total lifetime cost.
| Performance Dimension | GAC | AIX | PQ-Osorb® media |
| Familiarity | Established | Growing | Novel |
| Slow vs. Fast | Slowest | Medium | Fastest |
| Typical bed contact time | ~10 min | ~3 min | ~1 min |
| Capacity | Lowest | Medium | High |
| Bed volumes to breakthrough | 50k – 120k | 250k – 300k | 500k – 750k |
| Effective against small-chain PFAS | Least | Medium | Best |
| Regeneration /reactivation | Few/None | Few/None | Many times |
| Cost per kg of media | Lowest | Medium | Highest |
| Total cost of remediation | Higher | Medium | Expect lowest |
ABS Materials is proud to announce that we have agreed to an exclusive teaming agreement with with Arcadis!
Granted patents regarding the use of PFAS: