Packing Up PFAS

What is PFAS?

What do fastfood packaging, Teflon pans, firefighting foam and raincoats have in common? They all contain PFAS chemicals. These so called “forever chemicals” have been widely used since the 1950s. PFAS does not degrade naturally and due to industrial activity and wrongful waste-management PFAS is now found all around the globe in soil, water, wildlife and people. This threatens both human health and the environment since PFAS has been associated with many deceases.

PFAS and the building crisis

In 2019 PFAS was put on the political agenda of the Netherlands and immediately shut down the complete building sector. PFAS was found all over the country and led to a nationwide building ban on polluted soil. Without cleaning methods available, this health crisis quickly turned into a building crisis. In this case the most difficult type of polluted soil is clay. Due to its high density, clay holds a lot of PFAS while the soil cannot be washed or sanitized. This results in large amounts of PFAS polluted clay soil that have nowhere to go and ‘need’ to be disposed.

Packing Up PFAS

Packing Up PFAS offers a solution to clean up our environment and turn PFAS polluted soil into a usable product. By heating the polluted (clay)soil up to 900C-1200C the chemicals are destroyed while creating a clean ceramic material. This material can take many shapes like tableware, (roof)tiles or bricks. Especially bricks are interesting since they are produced in bulk and can be used as a local building material. As proof of concept, three polluted clay soils were successfully transformed into 120 piece sample set and 80 clean bricks. All that remains of their dirty past is the stamp that states the location of origin and amount of PFAS removed.