Close
Close Browser Alert
Browser Compatibility Notification
It appears you are trying to access this site using an outdated browser. As a result, parts of the site may not function properly for you. We recommend updating your browser to its most recent version at your earliest convenience.
  • Perspectives
  • Case Studies
    Toggle Section
    • Case Studies Search
  • Expertise
    Toggle Section
    • Advisory
      Toggle Section
      • Asset Advisory
      • Business Case Development
      • Finance and Economic Analysis
      • Logistics and Infrastructure Policy
      • Regulation and Access
      • Risk Management
      • Transaction Advisory
    • Buildings
      Toggle Section
      • Asset Management
      • Automation
      • Demolition and Decommissioning
      • Digital Design
      • Geotechnical
      • Land Development and Urban Planning
      • Materials, Process and Plant Engineering
        Toggle Section
        • Materials Handling
        • Minerals Processing
        • Plant Engineering
      • Mechanical, Electrical, Fire and Life Safety
        Toggle Section
        • Electrical Engineering - Building
        • Fire and Life Safety
        • HVAC
        • Hydraulics - Building
      • Project Management
        Toggle Section
        • Project and Construction Management
      • Security, Information, Communication and Technology
        Toggle Section
        • Communication Systems
        • Security
      • Spatial Sciences
      • Structures
    • Digital
      Toggle Section
      • Digital Design
      • Digital Lab (D-Lab)
      • Digital Intelligence
    • Energy and Resources
      Toggle Section
      • Asset Management
      • Automation
      • Chemicals
      • Dams
      • Engagement, Communication and Communities
      • Emergency Response
      • Geology
      • Geotechnical
      • HSE Systems
      • Impact Assessment and Permitting
      • Integrated Water Management
      • Materials, Process and Plant Engineering
        Toggle Section
        • Materials Handling
        • Minerals Processing
        • Plant Engineering
      • Materials Technology
      • Mechanical, Electrical, Fire and Life Safety
        Toggle Section
        • Electrical Engineering - Building
        • Fire and Life Safety
        • HVAC
        • Hydraulics - Building
      • Mining Engineering and Geosciences
      • Oil and Gas
      • Power
      • Project and Construction Management
      • Risk Management
      • Spatial Sciences
      • Tailings (Mines and Residue)
      • Wastewater Treatment and Recycling
      • Tunnels
      • EPCM
    • Environment
      Toggle Section
      • Air and Noise
        Toggle Section
        • Computational Fluid Dynamics
      • Aquatic Sciences
      • Contamination Assessment and Remediation
      • Demolition and Decommissioning
      • Engagement, Communication and Communities
      • Food and Agriculture
        Toggle Section
        • Agriculture
        • Food Processing
        • Forestry Management
      • HSE Systems
      • Hydrogeology
      • Hydrology and Hydrodynamics
        Toggle Section
        • Climate Change
        • Waterways and Coastal
      • Impact Assessment and Permitting
      • International Development Assistance (IDA)
      • Maritime and Coastal Engineering
      • Natural Resources
      • Spatial Sciences
      • Sustainability
      • Waste Management
    • Future Communities
    • Future Energy
    • Future of Water
    • Geosciences
      Toggle Section
      • Contamination Assessment and Remediation
      • Dams
      • Geology
      • Geotechnical
      • Hydrogeology
      • Mining Engineering and Geoscience
      • Risk Management
      • Spatial Sciences
      • Tailings (Mines and Residue)
      • Tunnels
    • Project Management
      Toggle Section
      • Construction Contracting
      • Engagement, Communication and Communities
      • EPCM
      • International Development Assistance (IDA)
      • Project and Construction Management
    • Transportation
      Toggle Section
      • Air and Noise
      • Architecture, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design
      • Asset Management
      • Aviation
      • Bridges
      • Digital Design
      • Engagement, Communication and Communities
      • Geotechnical
      • Impact Assessment and Permitting
      • Maritime and Coastal Engineering
      • Materials Technology
      • Railways
      • Road Systems
        Toggle Section
        • Pavement Engineering
        • Road Network Management
        • Road Systems
      • Structures
      • Transportation Planning and Traffic Engineering
      • Tunnels
      • Intelligent Transport Systems
    • Water
      Toggle Section
      • Automation
      • Circular Economy
      • Dams
      • Food and Agriculture
        Toggle Section
        • Agriculture
        • Food Processing
        • Forestry Management
      • Hydrogeology
      • Hydrology and Hydrodynamics
        Toggle Section
        • Climate Change
        • Waterways and Coastal
      • Impact Assessment and Permitting
      • Integrated Water Management
      • Maritime and Coastal Engineering
      • Spatial Sciences
      • Wastewater and Stormwater Collection Systems
      • Wastewater Treatment and Recycling
      • Water Treatment and Desalination
        Toggle Section
        • Desalination
        • Water Treatment
      • Water Collection and Distribution
  • Careers
    Toggle Section
    • Opportunities
      Toggle Section
      • Graduates and students
    • Life@GHD
    • Work@GHD
  • Contact
    Toggle Section
    • Feedback Form
  • About Us
    Toggle Section
    • Annual Review
    • Community
    • Health, Safety and Environment
    • History
      Toggle Section
      • A Firm Foundation
      • Breaking New Ground
    • Integrity Management
    • News and Insights
      Toggle Section
      • Transforming perspectives on complex sites
        Toggle Section
        • Water
        • Energy & Resources
        • Benzene Fenceline Monitoring Program
        • Property & Buildings
        • Transportation
        • Digital
        • Advisory
        • Project Management
        • Planning for uncertainty
        • Non-revenue water losses
        • Achieving business sustainability
        • Flood Modelling and Water meter Calibration
        • Waste to Energy for Wastewater Treatment
        • Integrated Water Management
        • Resource Recovery from Wastewater
        • Transitioning to customer-centric apporaches
        • Groundwater Quality Monitoring at CCR Units
        • California children affected by lead poisoning
        • Water Recycling Fund Program
        • Upgrading Kangaroo Creek Dam
        • Complying with industrial stormwater planning updates
        • EPA 2017 Stormwater Construction General Permit
        • Filtering microplastics
        • Lead in Drinking Water
        • Permitting for industrial stormwater discharge in Illinois
        • Storm Water Grant Program (SWGP)
        • Water Recycling Fund Program
        • Microgrid in WA
        • EPA 2017 Stormwater Construction General Permit
        • Permitting for industrial stormwater discharge in Illinois
        • Court upholds emission monitoring for oil and gas
        • Storm Water Grant Program (SWGP)
        • Enabling electricity evolution
        • Groundwater Quality Monitoring at CCR Units
        • Infrastructure owners face change
        • Proposed emission reductions for oil and gas
        • Underground storage closure requirements
        • US Congress votes to lift US oil export ban
        • EPA 2017 Stormwater Construction General Permit
        • Managing Outrage
        • Groundwater Quality Monitoring at CCR Units
        • Lead in Drinking Water
        • Proposed emission reductions for oil and gas
        • USEPA intends to expand the Risk Management Program
        • Transforming perspectives on complex sites
        • Complying with chemical data reporting
        • Risk Assessment and Toxicology Update On TSCA Reform
        • Court upholds emission monitoring for oil and gas
        • California Organics Diversion Regulatory Update
        • California children affected by lead poisoning
        • Change Notification to ISO 14001:2015
        • Task force recommendations for expedited site cleanup
        • Proposed Revisions to Site Remediation MACT
        • New Ontario online registry for environmental permits
        • Federal guidance released for human health risk assessments
        • Revised underground storage tank regulations
        • Lead levels updated for remediation
        • Remediation guidance for adaptive site management
        • USEPA intends to expand the Risk Management Program
        • New toxicity values for EPA screening calculator
        • TSCA Reform is on its way to become a law
        • New Strategy for Waste-Free Ontario
        • Final ruling issued on exposure to Crystalline Silica
        • Fill and Excess Soil Regulatory Update
        • EPA 2017 Stormwater Construction General Permit
        • Future of Western Sydney
        • USEPA Vapor Intrusion Technical Guide
        • Hazard awareness training for demolition services
        • Big Data
        • Digital Technologies
        • Digital Disruption
        • Canada hosts international forum on public private partnerships
        • Public private partnership forum examines lessons for transit
        • New Strategy for Waste-Free Ontario
        • Hazard awareness training for demolition services
        • Complying with chemical data reporting
        • Fill and Excess Soil Regulatory Update
        • Project Management for Large Transport Projects
        • Public private partnership forum examines lessons for transit
        • Canada hosts international forum on public private partnerships
        • Transforming perspectives on complex sites
        • Risk Assessment and Toxicology Update On TSCA Reform
        • Critical insights from P3 2017 in Toronto, Canada
        • Solving the PFAS puzzle
      • News
      • Publications
      • Insights
        Toggle Section
        • Committed to communities
    • Our leadership
      Toggle Section
      • Our Board
      • Enterprise Leadership Team
    • Proud to be employee owned
    • Sustainability
    • Values and Culture
    • Vendors
Skip to Content
iCreate Base Site Logo
  • Perspectives
  • Case Studies
    • Case Studies Search
  • Expertise
    • Advisory
    • Buildings
    • Digital
    • Energy and Resources
    • Environment
    • Future Communities
    • Future Energy
    • Future of Water
    • Geosciences
    • Project Management
    • Transportation
    • Water
  • Careers
    • Opportunities
    • Life@GHD
    • Work@GHD
  • Contact
    • Feedback Form
  • About Us
    • Annual Review
    • Community
    • Health, Safety and Environment
    • History
    • Integrity Management
    • News and Insights
    • Our leadership
    • Proud to be employee owned
    • Sustainability
    • Values and Culture
    • Vendors
Search
Global
Change Your Location
  • Global Global
  • Australia Australia
  • Canada (English) Canada EN
  • Canada (français) Canada FR
  • Chile Chile
  • China China
  • Fiji / South Pacific Fiji
  • New Zealand New Zealand
  • Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea
  • Philippines Philippines
  • Qatar Qatar
  • Singapore Singapore
  • UAE United Arab Emirates
  • UK United Kingdom
  • United States United States
  • Awards and Rankings
  • Policy Statements
  • Quality Management Systems

UK PFAS Insights

Solving the PFAS puzzle

HomeNews and InsightsTransforming perspectives on complex sitesSolving the PFAS puzzle

Our understanding of the presence, toxicity, and potential impacts of emerging contaminants continues to advance. However, there are still many uncertainties regarding the environmental risk posed by numerous chemicals, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a class of synthetic compounds used in a wide variety of consumer products. What critical research can help us develop solutions to manage PFAS?

In this article, Dr. Ryan Thomas, a leader of GHD’s North American Emerging Contaminants Group, tells us how GHD has been partnering globally with clients, universities, industrial companies, associations, vendors, consultants, and laboratories to conduct leading edge research projects to develop more knowledge and better understanding of how to best manage PFAS in a practical and economic manner. 

Identification: developing forensic fingerprints

PFAS are a large class (5,000+) of anthropogenic compounds used in a huge variety of consumer products due to their water and stain repellent, thermal resistance, and other properties. However, currently commercial analytical methods can accurately detect only around 30 of these compounds. USEPA has identified 75 priority compounds, with plans to group similar compounds in order to facilitate the faster development of risk assessments and improved management approaches (USEPA 2019).

The sheer volume of different PFAS and their use in a huge variety of products makes it daunting, if not practically impossible, to identify all the potential forms, not to mention possible situations where they might be found. Because of the wide spread usage, background levels of PFAS are truly ubiquitous in the environment and in humans.

That being said, there are four major known environmental sources of PFAS: fire training/fire response sites/airports, industrial sites, landfills, and wastewater treatment plants/biosolids. Other point and diffuse sources of PFAS exist, and may be significant locally, but generally are expected to be small by comparison to these four main sources. Knowing this, it makes sense to start with these sources to develop more precise forensic fingerprints for source materials, to facilitate future identification efforts. In partnership with a number of collaborators, our PFAS and Digital groups are developing machine learning projects that will enable us to accurately and precisely identify different types of PFAS at different sites.

“The technology is literally used to find multiple kinds of needles in many haystacks and the sources of the needles,” said Fred Taylor, a Senior GHD Principal and member of the research group. “We feed computer algorithms very large amounts of information and data from known sources to make it learn what PFAS is and what different PFAS compounds look like in the environment, creating forensic fingerprints that can be used to identify other multiple sources with a large degree of certainty. With so many complex and related PFAS compounds and breakdown and transformation products, massive amounts of data and extensive, focused computing power are needed to clearly identify and fingerprint the many subtle differences in multiple sources once they have been in the environment for years.”

The source material comes from impacted environmental media such as groundwater, surface water, and soil from AFFF and non-AFFF contaminated sites in North America and Australia.

Fate and Transport: building accurate models

Understanding how contaminants move in the environment is a key step to be able to effectively map risk boundaries and identify remediation strategies. The resistance of most PFAS to biotic or abiotic degradation means that physical transport processes and commingled contaminants are critical for PFAS transport and potential for exposure.

To develop fate and transport models, our team chose representative sites that have PFAS and other contaminants, and then calibrated using years of multi-media PFAS data similar to current contaminant modelling practices. Preparing 3D visualisations based on these models allow manipulations that help us to gain a good understanding of how PFAS and commingled contaminants migrate and preferentially accumulate in the environment. The knowledge gained from these models can be translated to other sites to identify significant receptors at risk and the effect over time of varying in situ and ex situ remedial techniques.

Containment: optimising stabilising agents

For contaminated solids (e.g., soil, sediment, biosolids, and building materials) there are two main ways that PFAS can be contained, if destruction is not practical or feasible. One is stabilisation, and the other is containment. The challenge is that if the PFAS are not destroyed, it is critical to ensure that the PFAS cannot leach or spread beyond the containment system as required by site remedial goals. The advantage of these remediation or treatment options is that they are done in-situ, unlike more expensive remedial options such as excavation and off-site landfilling or incineration.

Currently, the lack of demonstrated remedial technologies hinders the ability to solve a wide range of site and contaminant conditions. GHD’s Innovative Technology Group (ITG) has partnered on several new research collaborations to develop and improve remedial technologies and innovative approaches for site remediation, with a goal of reducing overall site remediation effort, time, and costs.

PFAS found in soils are subject to leaching during precipitation weather events and/or irrigation events (ITRC 2018), so the ITG is evaluating the stabilization and solidification of PFAS-contaminated soil, sediment, and solid waste materials. Leaching is a function of structural properties and the specific media’s pH, redox conditions, partitioning with organic or clay rich soil or sediment, and other factors such as co-contaminants and environmental factors. Solid waste materials derived from contaminated infrastructure can also be a significant source of PFAS. Building materials such as metals, stones, glass fabrics, tiles, carpet, and concrete were typically coated with fluoropolymers to improve fire and weather resistance in various construction-related applications (OECD 2013). Particularly concrete can act as a PFAS sponge and slow release media to continue providing a source of PFAS release (GHD 2017). Construction and demolition (C&D) materials such as those previously mentioned generated from renovation and demolition projects typically are disposed of in non-hazardous unlined landfills. As a result, impacted solid waste generated from C&D activities need management to mitigate PFAS releases at unacceptable levels to groundwater, surface water, and drinking water sources.

To find out what optimal stabilisation method will effectively stabilise PFAS and prevent leaching from solid materials, one research project will test various commercial and other stabilising reagents. Typically, the amounts and types of stabilisation agents required would then be confirmed by a treatability study where samples of the media at varying concentrations of contaminants are mixed with various amounts of stabilisation agents. When the stabilisation reactions are complete, a sample is taken and analysed for various leaching procedures such as toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) and/or synthetic precipitation leaching procedure (SPLP) to determine the reduction in leachability achieved.

Treatment: research to go to market with commercially-viable treatment technologies

There also is the need to develop alternatives to current commercially available products and methodologies that are more cost-effective and more sustainable, particularly for drinking water, groundwater, and leachate treatment.

One multi-million dollar project is aimed at developing a scalable modular technology that would treat PFAS from water sources including groundwater and surface waters. It would also employ a risk-based framework, to facilitate choosing sensible solutions that meet the expectations of all stakeholders, including owners and taxpayers. This project is being done in partnership with the University of Queensland Health, Queensland Urban Utilities, Airservices Australia and Australian Biorefining, supported by a grant from the Australian Research Council. Separate work in the area of risk assessment will help determine what acceptable or safe levels are, and is key to developing appropriate risk management strategies.

Various other treatability studies are also underway with a number of partners, including one that will directly compare select regenerable media technologies (surface-modified natural media) with synthetic resin and activated carbon. Testing using batch-equilibration reactors and column flushing apparatus experiments is being implemented to evaluate removal efficiency and longevity of each media when tested under identical conditions. Other studies are investigating the use of advanced oxidation treatment for water using chemical oxidants as photocatalysts, regeneration of absorbent media using solvent regeneration and advanced oxidation and electrochemical technologies to remove or destroy PFAS.

Piecing it all together: sharing results

Advances in the treatment and destruction of PFAS in drinking water, groundwater, landfill leachate, soil, sediment, building materials, and biosolids are critical to help us better manage PFAS in our environment, and prevent it from continuing to spread at unacceptable risk levels.

Recognising the importance of this research work has driven GHD to initiate research studies, provide in-kind services to support them, and partner with others to capture government funding to support studies. Our expertise in contaminant assessment and remediation, practical engineering, remedial economics, and in evaluating research concepts and results using evidence-based science will allow us to determine what approaches and technologies work in the real world. This experience will help industry and the public sector improve decision-making for site-specific conditions of PFAS investigation, identification, assessment, and remedial technologies. GHD will share these results globally with our partners at seminars, conferences, and through publications so that our lessons learned can help guide others as the overall PFAS landscape continues to evolve.

For more information on the above research and the many other projects underway, please contact Ryan Thomas. For assistance with projects in Europe, please contact Jo Steele

 

Meet Ryan

Dr. Thomas is a member of the Innovative Technology Group (ITG) at GHD based in Niagara Falls, New York and has 10 years of experience with complex chemical reactions and analytical chemistry. He has helped develop per‑ and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) fact sheets and technical regulatory guidance for Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council (ITRC). He has provided guidance on acceptable and prohibited items in addition to helping to establish GHD PFAS sampling protocols. Ryan is leader to GHD’s North American Emerging Contaminants Work Group and co-leader to ITRC’s Fate and Transport, Physical and Chemical Properties, and Site Characterization subgroup. Within ITG, Ryan leads research and development studies towards PFAS removal and destruction technologies in addition to performing PFAS sampling protocol and site characterization reviews.

 

Jo SteeleMeet Jo

Jo has a Masters degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Nottingham and has worked in environmental consulting since 2005.
Jo is a Principal Consultant in GHD’s UK Environment Team. She has managed a variety of projects specialising in contaminated land assessment related to due diligence, planning support, site closure and environmental permitting. Jo has experience working across a wide range of sectors, including oil and gas, property development, food and beverage, automotive, aerospace, nuclear and chemical industries.

 

 

Related Services

Contamination Assessment & Remediation
Contamination Assessment & Remediation
Digital
Digital
UK PFAS insights - Issue 1
UK PFAS insights - Issue 1
Follow Us: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn YouTube
News and InsightsLegal NoticesModern Day Slavery StatementPrivacy PolicyTerms of Use

Copyright © GHD 2020

Sitemap
Increase Contrast
Top