Firefighters worldwide are grappling with the issue of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly known as “forever chemicals,” which are notorious for their persistence in the environment.
Enspired Solutions, a company dedicated to the destruction of PFAS, has developed a solution to this problem: the PFASigator® This technology uses a unique chemistry called photo-activated reductive defluorination (PRD) to break down PFAS in water, transforming harmful compounds into safe, basic elements.
As fire trucks often use PFAS-laden foam, cleaning them out poses a significant challenge.
Enspired Solutions offers a way to not just contain, but destroy PFAS on site, potentially revolutionizing how fire services deal with this issue.
In this interview, we sit down with Sarah L.
Meyer, Chief Operating Officer of Enspired Solutions, to discuss the company’s approach, their innovative solution, and why this matters for the fire and safety industry.
I’m Sarah Meyer, the Chief Operating Officer at Enspired Solutions.
I lead the organizational and business development efforts for Enspired.
We’re really excited to have entered the world of fire safety by bringing our PFAS destruction technology to airport and public safety departments.
Before Enspired, I spent over 25 years in research and consulting with a focus on remediation of contaminated waterways.
Enspired Solutions has a USEPA-award winning technology that destroys PFAS in water on site.
We are a certified Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) and women-led remediation company headquartered in Lansing, Michigan.
Our technology uses non-pressurized, non-thermal equipment and photo-activated reductive defluorination (PRD) to destroy PFAS in water.
Our mission is to forward a diversity of people in STEM careers and permanently alleviate PFAS risks to all.
For fire safety applications, our team brings our mobile PFASigator water treatment reactor to your site to simultaneously decontaminate your apparatus and destroy PFAS in the rinsewater.
No PFAS waste remains on site.
PFAS were designed and manufactured to be extremely resistant to wear and effects from water, heat, oil, and more.
These characteristics made PFAS very popular in consumer products worldwide, such as the protective coatings found in cookware, consumer packaging, medical devices, clothing and aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF).
These characteristics also mean that PFAS don’t naturally break down in the environment so they persist, can migrate, and require a lot of energy to be destroyed.
Given all this, it’s easy to see why finding efficient ways to remove PFAS from the environment and permanently destroy them is a challenge.
(note that the PFASigator is now a registered trademark and should have the on it.) Enspired uses a technology called photo-activated reductive defluorination (PRD) to destroy PFAS.
The technology is based on specific chemistry that has been published and patented.
We add two liquid reagents to PFAS-contaminated water, and when the solution is exposed to ultra-violet light (UV), the energy from the UV is used to break the carbon-fluorine bonds of PFAS molecules.
The PFASigator is our automated batch treatment reactor that applies the technology.
Since 2019, we have put our technology through rigorous testing on a variety of environmental and concentrated samples of PFAS.
Since 2021, we have tested hundreds of samples in various matrices and performed multiple commercial-scale demonstrations.
Our work to date has been funded by the US Department of Defence; US Bureau of Reclamation; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS); multiple domestic and international industrial, commercial and engineering companies; and investors.
One of the challenges of transitioning a fire truck or fire system from AFFF to fluorine-free foam is removing residual PFAS from the interior walls of AFFF tanks and piping.
By using the PFASigator to simultaneously rinse out the fire system and destroy PFAS in a recirculating loop, we have been able to demonstrate that 20 times more PFAS is removed from the fire system than with a single rinse.
This enhanced removal reduces the risk of rebound and release of residuals during use of the apparatus after the transition.
When PFAS are captured and re-located to a landfill or incinerator for disposal, the disposal process can be incomplete and there is a risk of re-releasing PFAS to the environment.
There is also an expense related to transporting PFAS over-the-road that is increasing as PFAS regulations increase.
Because the PFASigator destroys PFAS on site, the risk of re-releasing PFAS back into the environment is mitigated and the cost to transport large volumes of contaminated water to a remote location for disposal is eliminated.
The PFASigator is built from standard water treatment components that have been used in the industry for decades and are arranged in a way that optimizes our destruction technology.
It was designed to be plugged in as the PFAS destruction piece of a large water treatment system.
The PFASigator requires a power supply; fresh water supply; and plumbing for wastewater inlet and outlet.
For a large airport or industrial facility with a variety of PFAS management needs, a PFASigator could be added to a water treatment system.
For a smaller fire department that needs occasional truck decontamination, a better option might be to hire our service to bring a mobile PFASigator to your facility as needed for cleaning out your equipment.
For occasional truck decontamination, small or large fire departments can hire our service to bring a mobile PFASigator to the facility as needed for cleaning out equipment.
Cleaning takes 1-3 days per apparatus.
For facilities with larger PFAS management needs, the PFASigator is often paired with a PFAS concentration technology and then one PFASigator can treat up to approximately 200 gallons of PFAS concentrate per day.
For larger volumes, additional PFASigators can be used.
Early adopters of our technology like the ease of use of the equipment, standard temperature and pressure operating conditions, low cost (both CAPEX and OPEX), lack of toxic byproducts, and ability to monitor destruction in real time by observing the release of fluoride from PFAS when the molecules are destroyed.
As these technologies develop, I can envision PFAS decon services becoming more user friendly, more widely available and a part of routine truck and fire suppression system maintenance.
It is our hope that Enspired’s efficient PFAS destruction technology becomes a go-to option for eliminating PFAS risks to fire and safety personnel as well as the public.
