Tokyo (SCCIJ) – The Swiss company Oxyle has developed a catalyst to destroy PFAS plastics, often called forever-chemicals because they do not degrade naturally. The first clean-up operation began recently.
Catalytic breakthrough
PFAS stands for “per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances.” These chemicals help an outdoor jacket stay waterproof when it rains, ensure that Teflon pans don’t burn, and that fire extinguishing foam puts out fires. Without PFAS coatings, coffee would seep through paper cups. The primary way for treating waste containing PFAS is to absorb or separate them. Now, a Swiss solution is capable of destroying them.
Oxyle says it has the world’s first economical, sustainable, and permanent answer to PFAS destruction. Their breakthrough PFAS catalytic destruction technology empowers industrial and environmental remediation companies in their fight against water contamination.
Established in 2020 as a spin-off for water purification from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, it has received 12 million Swiss francs of venture capital and multiple awards, most recently the Swiss Technology Award 2024 in November.
Real-time measurement
Oxyle’s technology doesn’t just filter or adsorb PFAS; it eliminates them below detection limits. Also, its analyzer measures the progress of PFAS removal in near real-time. Currently, samples have to be sent to a laboratory, which is costly and time-consuming. With more than 15x lower average energy consumption than other destructive treatments, it is the most energy-efficient, cost-effective treatment on the market, says the Swiss start-up.
Oxyle’s technology breaks down PFAS into harmless minerals directly in the water without the energy-intensive detour via incinerators. Even short-chain PFAS, considered particularly recalcitrant, are reliably destroyed by the catalyst. It is made of nanoporous material and thus has a large surface area on which the PFAS can dock.
Vastly reduced costs
The water’s turbulence alone activates the process of breaking down the forever chemicals into unproblematic by-products such as fluoride, sulfate ions, and carbon dioxide. “Disposing of one cubic meter of PFAS-contaminated water in a conventional incinerator costs thousands of francs,” Silvan Staufert, Oxyle’s technical director, told the Swiss newspaper NZZ. With our technology, we are talking in the range of a few francs.”
Since the end of October, an Oxyle system in a seven-meter-long container has been cleaning up to ten cubic meters per hour of groundwater contaminated by PFAS-containing fire extinguishing foam used during fire drills. By combining ten or twenty of these modules, 100 or 200 cubic meters per hour volumes are also now within reach.
Text: SCCIJ based on Oxyle and NZZ
