PFAS are a very large group of synthetic chemicals that include PFOA, PFOS, GenX chemicals, and potentially more than 4000 other compounds that have been manufactured and used in a variety of industries worldwide since the 1940s. PFAS are found in a wide array of consumer products and industrial processes, including firefighting foams, chemical processing, building/construction, aerospace, electronics, semiconductor and automotive industries, stain- and water-resistant coatings, food packaging, and waxes and cleaners. Due to their strong carbon–fluorine bonds, many PFAS can be very persistent in the environment with degradation periods of years, decades, or longer. Most people have been exposed to these molecules, and there is evidence that continued exposure to certain PFAS above specific levels may lead to adverse health effects, such as developmental effects, cancer, liver effects, immune effects, and thyroid effects. As a result, the characterisation, regulation, and remediation of PFAS has become a primary focus of regulatory bodies around the world.

ECT2’s SORBIX™ PURE single-use ion-exchange resins provide advantages over other approaches, such as GAC and reverse osmosis filtration, in the removal of PFAS from water. These synthetic resins, composed of a neutral, hydrophobic backbone, divinylbenzene cross-links, and positively charged exchange sites, are essentially adsorbents with ion-exchange functionality. The hydrophobic carbon–fluorine tail of a typical PFAS molecule adsorbs to the resin’s hydrophobic backbone and cross-links, and the negatively charged head of the PFAS molecule is attracted to the resin’s positively charged ion-exchange site. This combination of adsorption and ion exchange produces a PFAS removal capacity that is 13 times more effective than other technologies. SORBIX PURE is the most efficient technology on the market for removing PFAS compounds, including short chain molecules.

SORBIX™ RePURE is a patented technology, enabled by a proprietary specialty regenerant solution, that allows PFAS-saturated resin to be regenerated onsite and reused. Following regeneration of SORBIX RePURE, the PFAS-laden regenerant solution is processed through ECT2’s distillation and SuperLoading™ process, reducing waste generation by orders of magnitude. SORBIX RePURE has approximately 10 times the capacity of GAC and is best suited to applications where resin replacement would lead to high operating expenses, such as long-term installations, source-area remediation wells, high-concentration spillage or discharge, or complex waters, or where management of short-chain or precursor PFAS is important.