COLORADO SPRINGS
A tour of PFAS-erasing demonstration projects at Peterson Space Force Base leaves an indelible impression: It’s going to take massive amounts of innovation and energy to solve Colorado’s “forever chemicals” problem.
But PFAS destruction expert Chris Higgins of the Colorado School of Mines, where some of the most promising techniques were launched, wants people who see the Space Force cleanup sites to come away with another impression: hope. Some of the state’s top science and engineering minds are hard at work on the best methods for destroying toxic PFAS, and they are building a menu of options for places like Peterson Space Force that have historic contamination from firefighting foam.
To refresh — PFAS refers to a broad family of chemicals added to countless industrial and consumer goods in the name of waterproofing and lubrication, from stain-resistant carpet to waterproof hiking clothing to plastics like toothbrush handles or takeout containers. Those same strong chemical bonds also mean they won’t break down in the environment for thousands of years, and in the meantime their toxic runoff is consumed by humans and can cause cancers, pregnancy complications and other medical issues.
All photos by Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun
Peterson Space Force and the School of Mines on Tuesday hosted media, and one of the first stops was a trash hauler with tainted dirt being used for the experiments and demonstrations. Over decades of use, PFAS ran off and drained into retention ponds or creek beds, and Peterson, like other bases in Colorado and across the country, has dug up and set aside contaminated soil for eventual treatment.
Geosyntec uses ultraviolet light to break the bonds that otherwise make PFAS last “forever.” Higgins says they’re “sending PFAS to a tanning bed.” Here, Higgins and researcher Geosyntec’s Hannah McIntyre show the system, where tainted soil has been scrubbed with water and the resulting liquid is sent through UV light and photo catalysts. Some of the technologies shown at the base are already in use and can be hired from a commercial company, but others, like the UV methods, are the “first attempts at something outside of the lab,” Higgins said.
Sean Houseworth, chief of the Peterson Installation Support Section of the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, talks on the tour about the military’s goals for PFAS cleanup. Some of the technologies proving useful so far take enormous amounts of expensive energy for heat or light, or large amounts of expensive and hazardous chemicals. Higgins says the demonstrations are not a “bakeoff,” rewarding one winner, but instead an effort to create a “nutritional label” for each method showing how much each might cost and what the time and safety trade-offs might be.
374Water is experimenting with PFAS treatment that heats tainted liquid under pressure to the “supercritical” temperature of 374 degrees Centigrade. Here, company technician Jordyn Lawrence keeps track of the demonstration.
Anderson Ellis, left, and Dhileep Sivam of Aquagga set up equipment at Peterson. Aquagga’s method was developed by a School of Mines professor, and Ellis was one of his Ph.D. students. The hydrothermal alkaline treatment uses a chemical scrub to destroy PFAS while requiring somewhat lower temperatures than the “supercritical” method.
John La Chance of TerraTherm monitors his thermo-desorption unit at the Peterson demonstration. The process uses even more energy, requiring temperatures of 400 degrees Centigrade to break the PFAS bonds and “desorb” or reverse the absorption of targeted chemicals. School of Mines is using a $3.5 million Department of Defense grant to help manage the various academic and commercial PFAS demonstrations.
The Forever Problem
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