An Ohio company is the first in the U.S. to find a way to destroy toxic firefighting foam, which had been piling up in storage across the state with no safe way to dispose of it.
Since the 1960s, Ohio’s firefighters have put out oil and gas fires with aqueous film forming foam, known as AFFF. It’s effective at eliminating liquid-based fires, but it comes with a risk: the foam is known to contain high concentrations of PFAS.
PFAS are a class of chemicals linked to serious health problems, including cancer. And they’re notoriously difficult to get rid of.
That's what makes Revive Environmental's "PFAS annihilator" so critical: it is the only technology proven to completely destroy PFAS in this firefighting foam.
The Ohio EPA officially launched the AFFF takeback program in March.
Five collection events and five months later, over 13,000 gallons of AFFF were collected to be given to Revive Environmental – the company managing the deployment of the annihilator – for disposal.
Technology that's ahead of the game
This includes 20 different varieties of the foam produced over the last 35 years.
Over 200 gallons of the state’s collected foam have been destroyed.
The PFAS annihilator is able to transform the AFFF – one of the most common sources of PFAS pollution – into water with undetectable levels of PFAS. The Columbus-based company was even approved for a permit to discharge 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 be dangerous to human health.
“And it's very important to make sure that we close the loop and we do not allow PFAS to exist after we're done processing it. And that's where the closed loop annihilator really shines, because we can document what goes in and we can document the PFAS doesn't leave,” Trueba said.
The device works by using pressure and heat to break the fluorinated bonds that make PFAS so durable. This is different from incineration, where the PFAS can end up aerosolized, Trueba said.
“Incineration is great for things that you can completely combust. For things that you can't completely destroy, there's products of incomplete combustion, meaning you're not burning it all. That's then put back into the atmosphere,” he said.
More annihilated foam to come
This is just the first phase of the program. The company estimates there are 150,000 gallons of AFFF with the state’s fire departments.
Ohio EPA director Anne Vogel said other states in the region are excited to see how the program pans out.
“We're really excited about this technology. We've been able to verify that it works. We have a target of January that what we've collected has been destroyed. And as to our knowledge, Revive is on pace to meet that target,” Vogel said.
The company is also contracting with the U.S. government to remove PFAS from groundwater. New Hampshire recently launched its own AFFF takeback program using the annihilator technology.
