Advanced UV-light photochemical system for PFAS Destruction at high flow - ClarosTechUV™

The technique uses a UV-photochemical process that breaks carbon-fluorine bonds, resulting in mineralization of targeted per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in wastewater.

The technology (designed and commercialized as ClarosTechUV™) integrates with a wide range of industrial flow conditions—from lower-volume process streams to high-flow applications up to thousands of liters per minute—and is built to scale as treatment needs evolve.

Environmental purpose

The ClarosTechUV™ system has been developed to address the urgent global challenge posed by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including TFA. PFAS are resistant to natural degradation processes, resulting in their accumulation in water sources and vital ecosystems. The primary environmental purpose of the system is to permanently destroy PFAS molecules in contaminated wastewater before it ever leaves the factory, thereby reducing their presence in the environment and mitigating any associated risks.

Driving Force for Implementation

The implementation of the ClarosTechUV™ system is driven by the unique chemical properties of PFAS compounds. These substances are characterized by extremely strong carbon-fluorine bonds, making them highly resistant to conventional treatment methods and natural breakdown. There are no known biochemical pathways capable of metabolizing many PFAS molecules, which contributes to their persistence and bioaccumulation. Studies have claimed credible links between PFAS exposure and adverse health effects, particularly when these chemicals accumulate in human tissue. The public’s growing awareness of this, combined with increasing regulatory and societal pressure to address PFAS contamination, underscores the critical need for innovative technologies that can achieve cost-effective and permanent destruction of PFAS at a molecular level at the source.

Operation

Industrial wastewater is introduced directly into the reactor, where it undergoes a proprietary photochemical treatment process. During this process, ultraviolet (UV) light is used to cleave the recalcitrant carbon-fluorine bonds within PFAS molecules, leading to their mineralization. The process further relies on a propriety mixture of light-sensitive reagents comprising materials that are commonly used in water treatment applications. The result is the conversion of PFAS into inorganic fluoride, mineral carbon compounds, and short-chain hydrocarbons, which present significantly lower risks. The treated water exiting the reactor is thus substantially depleted of its PFAS content, demonstrating the system’s effectiveness in achieving destruction rather than separation or capture. The system requires minimal to zero pretreatment or pre-concentration of influent wastewater, making it highly adaptable to varying operational conditions. It can be deployed as a standalone solution or integrated into existing wastewater treatment trains, either before or after PFAS capture technologies like granular activated carbon or ion-exchange beds, and in conjunction with separation and pre-concentration systems such as reverse osmosis or nanofiltration. The system operates entirely on electric power at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure, eliminating the need for energy-intensive pressurization, evaporation, or aerosolization steps. This results in negligible Scope I greenhouse gas emissions and aligns with industrial decarbonization strategies, particularly those using low-carbon electricity sources.

Environmental Performance

The technology has been demonstrated in commercial/industrial real world settings in the EU and the USA , targeting short and ultrashort chain species of interest in the EU like trifluoracetic acid (TFA) and perfluoropropionic acid (PFPrA):

• Pilot and commercial optimization work has confirmed the ability to reduce PFAS levels by 99.99% in industrial wastewater and treatment volumes exceeding 700 cubic meters and flow rates ranging from a few liters to thousands of liters per minute.

• Demonstrated efficient defluorination and quantitative fluorine recovery, confirming that fluorine remains contained and not released to the environment.

• Strong mineralization performance, converting total organic fluorine (TOF) in the influent to >98% inorganic free fluoride after treatment. This indicates that ClarosTechUV™ not only breaks down PFAS compounds but also efficiently converts organic fluorine into its inorganic free fluoride state, thereby enabling opportunities for circular fluorine recycling.

• Effective PFAS destruction across a wide range of influent concentrations, from sub-ppb to > 10% initial PFAS content, achieving up to 99.999% destruction of target PFAS compounds in internal lab studies and 99.99% in pilot and commercial optimization scenarios.

Basic information about the technique

Production data

The UV destruction system is flexible to accommodate varying influent composition, flow rates, and operating conditions to customer targets for PFAS destruction. The project discussed above was undertaken using systems configured for throughput over the range from approx. 10–300 cubic meters per day per reactor unit and achieved over 99.99% destruction of all target PFAS compounds under optimized conditions. Additional reactor units can be installed to further scale the process.

Associated main production process(es) and product(s): The production process is wastewater remediation, with clean water as the product

Production data: 300 cubic meters water per day

Participant Companies