Scientists and environmental regulators have been studying PFAS for years now, but new details are still coming out that make these so-called “forever chemicals” seem even more hazardous than previously thought.
Earlier this month, the EPA said it’s unsafe to be exposed to essentially any amount of PFOA and PFOS, the two most well-known PFAS chemicals. The agency set a new non-binding health advisory for these two chemicals at less than one tenth of one part per trillion. The EPA’s prior standards set in 2016 were thousands of times higher this and, furthermore, current PFAS sampling technology can only detect concentrations of four parts per trillion and above.
The 3M Co. chemical plant in Cottage Grove, Minn., had been manufacturing varieties of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) since the 1950s for the water- and stain-repellant Scotchgard, but stopped producing long-chain PFOS in 2000.
The Chemours Co. on Wednesday petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to review the EPA’s June health advisory for GenX chemicals—PFAS substances that the agency considers toxic.
These forever chemicals are thought to be everywhere.
For investors, the opportunity is the technology to remove them from water.
In the lab, my first choice treatment would be activated carbon. The leading supplier used to be Calgon Carbon, still in Pittsburgh, now a private company. Once they were a division of Merck. Acquired by Credit Suez. Merged to form Nalco. Also private.
Darco is a common brand name. Penny stock listed in Singapore.
Ecolabs might be one company in water treatment and still public.
Betz-Dearborn is another. Later acquired by Hercules and then sold to GE as their water division, then sold to Suez. Now known as Suez Water per Wikipedia:
SUEZ is owned by a consortium of strong and reputable shareholders, determined to support an ambitious strategy to lead the Group to be a world-class, agile and innovative leader in environmental services.
Credit Suez is a French company best known for construction of the Suez Canal.
If the chemicals are “even more hazardous than previously thought” why is the EPA only issuing a non-binding advisory? Is the science behind it weak or are the absolute hazards not that hazardous?
Texas Tech University’s Jennifer Guelfo was part of a research team that found the use of a novel sub-class of per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) in lithium ion batteries is a growing source of pollution in air and water…
“Our results reveal a dilemma associated with manufacturing, disposal, and recycling of clean energy infrastructure,” said Guelfo, an associate professor of environmental engineering in the Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering. “Slashing carbon dioxide emissions with innovations like electric cars is critical, but it shouldn’t come with the side effect of increasing PFAS pollution. We need to facilitate technologies, manufacturing controls and recycling solutions that can fight the climate crisis without releasing highly recalcitrant pollutants.”…
The researchers sampled air, water, snow, soil and sediment near manufacturing plants in Minnesota, Kentucky, Belgium and France. The bis-FASI concentrations in these samples were commonly at very high levels. Data also suggested air emissions of bis-FASIs may facilitate long-range transport, meaning areas far from manufacturing sites may be affected as well. Analysis of several municipal landfills in the southeastern U.S. indicated these compounds can also enter the environment through disposal of products, including lithium ion batteries.
I suspect that all this pollution is from low value lithium ion batteries, like the ones in consumer electronics that are simply discarded when they are not useful anymore. The batteries in EVs are far to valuable to allow to go to waste, and will all be recycled. In fact, they will likely be recycled in two phases - one, when an EV is totaled, they strip the batteries and use them for refurb EV batteries or for large battery storage facilities (which are fine with batteries that only retain 70% of their original capacity). Then, after those batteries deteriorate some more, they are then stripped of their critical minerals to be used in newly manufactured batteries.
There are already a few companies that do this. I think one is called Redwood (or similar) that was founded by an ex-Tesla guy.
As PFAs are premium priced products, I’d be surprised to find them in disposable lithium batteries. More likely in rechargeables. But sometimes tiny additions of proprietary additives can make a big difference in performance. This is common with surfactants. The performance minimum known as critical micel concentration can be very tiny.