GHD award celebrates innovative approaches for PFAS cleanup

Two GHD employees, Beth Landale from Detroit, USA, and Dr. Ali Farhat from Brisbane, Australia, are joint winners of the GHD’s Chairman’s Award for Technical Excellence for development of technologies that have the potential to remove and destroy Per-and Poly-Fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS).

Widespread use of PFAS in consumer products, industrial processes and legacy firefighting foams has resulted in land and groundwater contamination, potentially affecting human health and the environment whilst being extremely difficult to remediate.

GHD has been leading the response to PFAS as an emerging contaminant globally for more than 10 years. GHD Chairman’s Award for Technical Excellence recipients are at the forefront of developing innovative remediation technologies for these substances, which are persistent in the environment, migrate easily, and can concentrate in the food chain.

Beth and her project team have been investigating the use of alkaline ozonation on removing PFAS present in groundwater at a former industrial site in Michigan, working closely with Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response (RACER) Trust and Clarkson University. A peer-reviewed study ‘Evaluation of PFAS treatment technology: Alkaline ozonation’ was recently published in Remediation - the Journal of Environmental Cleanup Costs Technologies & Techniques.

Ali has been working in partnership with University of Queensland, Queensland Health, Urban Utilities, Airservices Australia, and MemTech on testing and piloting an end-to-end solution for PFAS removal and destruction using electrochemical treatment technology to break down PFAS at two sites in Queensland. The project was successful in securing a AUD1.1 million in funding over three years from the Australian Research Council, with a total project value of AUD2.8 million inclusive of all participants’ contributions.

Rob Knott, GHD’s Chairman, says, “Beth and Ali have developed innovative approaches to a difficult problem – removal of PFAS. There are no simple solutions to addressing this global issue, which has become the number one environmental risk for some organisations. There is a need for effective and sustainable remedial technologies to treat PFAS and we are extremely proud to progress their development together with our clients.”

The GHD Chairman’s Award for Technical Excellence was awarded at the recent virtual GHD Technical Innovation Summit, where energy professionals from across GHD’s global network gathered to explore how to they can help clients solve complex challenges relating to emerging contaminants.