No longer the forever chemical: Synergen Met develops ground-breaking way to destroy harmful PFAS chemicals

Synergen Met has become the first company in the world to develop a way to destroy harmful PFAS chemicals.

The thermal plasma specialists partnered with the University of Queensland and Brisbane-based company Sustainable Solutions International to test its technology on the toxic substances, commonly associated with firefighting foam.

The testing program was partly funded by the Australian Research Council.

Founder and CEO Christopher Dunks said they quickly realised in order to eliminate it, they’d have to first find a way to separate it from contaminated liquid or leachate.

“PFAS wants to attach itself to bubbles, so we created a foam flotation system that concentrates out the chemicals,” he said.

“We’ve spent the past three years fine-tuning the technology and we’re now ready to share it with the world.”

After separating the PFAS chemicals, Synergen Met puts the concentrate through its award-winning thermal plasma technology.

“The main issue with PFAS not breaking down in the environment is the fluorine,” Mr Dunks said.

“By putting the concentrate through our plasma system, we’re able to destroy the PFAS molecule, capture the fluorine and convert it into either sodium fluoride or calcium fluoride.

“These harmless substances can then be processed by waste water treatment plants.”

Mr Dunks said Synergen Met’s technology was a game-changer both in Australia and around the world.

“There’s evidence to show PFAS has significant impacts on human and animal health even at very low concentrations,” he said.

“Governments and industry know it needs to be treated and removed from the environment.”

UQ Emeritus Professor Victor Rudolph said he believed the technology would have a big impact both in Australia and around the world.

“I think it will get deployed quite widely,” he said.

“It has all the elements of success.”

Prof. Rudolph said the team had shown time and time again that the technology not only worked, but also turned the once forever PFAS chemical into “relatively safe products”.

“The other part of the work that we’ve done, which in my view is equally important as the destruction, is the capture,” he said.

“Our ability to concentrate the PFAS on a commercial scale is cheap compared to other methods.”

PFAS is most commonly found in water reserves like wastewater treatment plants, construction site groundwater and landfill run-off.

Synergen Met is now working with councils and utility companies to remove all traces of PFAS, no matter how small the concentration.

The Brisbane-headquartered company is building portable destruction treatment plants that can be deployed quickly to any site, and a site in Brisbane where they can treat the PFAS offsite.

“As well as being economically viable, it can also be powered using renewable electricity,” Mr Dunks said.

Synergen Met is a world-leading thermal plasma technology specialist, which it uses to create sustainable solutions to some of the world’s biggest environmental problems.