SSI’s proprietary and patented (provisional patent) PFAS-Clear mobile systems reduces poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in PFAS contaminated wastewater to non-detectable levels and eliminates metals and other organic and inorganic compounds to below the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Maximum Contamination Level (MCL) for safe drinking water at the customer's location.

PFAS is a primary component of AFFF (Aqueous Film-Forming Foam), which is a firefighting foam that quickly extinguishes fuel fires on ships and aircraft.  Two members of the PFAS family, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) are under review for potential harm to humans.  Both PFOA and PFOS are in the news for contaminating ground water.   AFFF is used as part of fire suppression systems and in emergency responses at chemical plants, oil refineries and rigs, and notably in aviation operations. AFFF works by quickly spreading out over the surface of the fuel, depriving the fire of oxygen, quickly extinguishing even large fires. The foam also prevents the hot fuel from reigniting. Currently, AFFF that contain fluorine chemicals are used to put out dangerous fuel fires quickly and keep them out.  The EPA established the health advisory levels at 70 parts per trillion (ppt) for PFOA and PFOS in 2016.  The EPA is issuing interim, updated drinking water health advisories for PFOA and PFOS that replace those EPA issued in 2016. The updated advisory levels, which are based on new science and consider lifetime exposure, indicate that some negative health effects may occur with concentrations of PFOA or PFOS in water that are near zero and below EPA’s ability to detect at this time.  The good news is that SSI's technology has proven its capability to reduce PFOA and PFOS as well as 24 other PFAS analytes to non-detectable levels meeting the interim guidance.

The DOD recently instituted numerous policies designed to limit or eliminate all incidental discharge of AFFF and is in the process of replacing AFFF from current storage vessels with a similar flourine molecule structure (replacing 8-chain molecule structure with a 6-chain molecule structure).  Research is underway to replace the fluorine molecule structure with a safe substitute; however, this will take many years. 

Because high concentration levels of PFOA and PFOS molecules and other PFAS analytes are in AFFF, Department of Defense (DOD) facilities, other Government agencies, State and Local Firefighting operations collect AFFF and store it for later destruction. The destruction process is under review and is time consuming, expensive, and requires transport of dangerous materials on local roadways over far distances.

SSI's PFAS-Clear system reduces PFAS analytes in processed water effluent it produces to non-detectable levels.  It also removes many heavy metals, organic, and inorganic contaminates to below the MCL established by the EPA for safe drinking water.  The initial volume PFAS contaminated water (depending on PFAS concentration) is reduced up to 100 percent.  Additional steps are taken for any reduction that is not 100% to achieve the least volume of PFAS contaminated wastewater.  This results in a significant reduction in volume of PFAS contaminated waste, if any volume at all.  The filtered water effluent resulting from the PFAS-Clear operations meets EPA standards and can be removed to a Water Treatment Facility or be discharged on the ground or into the sewer in accordance with Federal, State, and Local requirements. 

The PFAS-Clear system is comprised of a proprietary system of components designed by SSI to treat PFAS contaminated wastewater.  PFAS-Clear is designed to address problems with water contaminated by PFAS, hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) such as seawater. PFAS-Clear successfully cleaned PFAS contaminated wastewater to non-detectable levels from 72 million ppt to non-detectable levels (<4 ppt) and below the EPA standard for drinking water! It also reduced hydrocarbon in PFAS contaminated bilge water.  PFAS-Clear mobile system currently filters up to 12,000 gallons per day and is scalable allowing for larger projects to be completed.  A fixed Central Processing Center is under development and capable of processing up to 40,000 gallons of PFAS contaminated wastewater per day. The process is environmentally safe and provides a solution to mitigating the volume of PFAS contaminated wastewater.  SSI provides a "one-stop-solution" to addressing this challenge.  A single price per gallon includes removal, filtering/processing, and final disposition of the PFAS contaminated wastewater products.  This eliminates the logistics considerations for the customer. and removes the risks with long-haul transportation.  The most important factor is that it removes the "legacy" considerations for potential future cleanup associated with landfill disposal because it is not landfilled.  

If the goal is to reduce/eliminate PFAS contaminated wastewater at a customer's site, reduce the volume of PFAS contaminated wastewater storage requirements at a customer's site, or eliminate the logistics requirements to remove the contaminated water to only a few sites accepting this contaminated water --- PFAS-Clear is the technology that will get it done.