Recipient Organization
Coflux Purification, Inc
10053 Westpark Drive Apt 289
Houston,TX 770425920
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a group of long-lasting chemicals increasingly found in rivers, lakes, and groundwater across the country. In rural areas, these chemicals can enter water used for irrigation, livestock watering, or through local contaminated sites, contaminated waters, and the use of biosolid-based fertilizers. Once in the environment, PFAS can build up in soil, crops, and livestock, creating risks for food safety, public health, and market access for farmers and ranchers. Small rural water systems and agricultural producers often lack affordable, effective options for removing PFAS from their water supplies.This project will develop a field-ready water treatment reactor designed for PFAS-impacted agricultural areas and watersheds. The system captures and destroys PFAS in a single step, addressing the problem permanently. This is achieved by integrating a novel treatment material into a UV-C water treatment reactor that can be deployed directly in-stream where contamination is present. By eliminating the need for additional waste handling or multiple treatment stages, the technology is more practical and cost-effective for small-scale and rural users.By creating an affordable, easy-to-deploy solution, this project will help protect rural drinking water, improve irrigation quality, and reduce the risk of PFAS entering crops and livestock. Indirectly, it will benefit ranchers by lowering the risk of livestock exposure, protecting herd health, and safeguarding the reputation of agricultural products in the marketplace. Results will be shared with farmers, ranchers, rural water operators, and policy makers to guide future PFAS cleanup efforts and strengthen rural water quality protections.
Animal Health Component
20%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
0%
Applied
20%
Developmental
80%
Goals / Objectives
Goal StatementPFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a group of highly persistent chemicals that have been detected in watersheds across the United States. These compounds can accumulate in soil, crops, and livestock when contaminated water is used for irrigation, animal watering, or the application of biosolid-based fertilizers. For farmers and ranchers, this contamination can lead to reduced product safety, economic losses, and long-term risks to market access. Rural communities that rely on local water sources face additional health concerns, as PFAS exposure has been linked to serious health effects in people and animals.The goal of this project is to develop and demonstrate a cost-effective, field-ready water treatment system that can both capture and destroy PFAS in water sources, especially ones impacting agriculture. By integrating a novel photocatalytic sorbent into a scalable reactor design, the system aims fully remove and destroy pfas from the watershed. This will improve water quality, safeguarding agricultural productivity, protecting rural communities, and reducing risks to farmers, ranchers, and the public.Project Objectives1. Assess performance in real water and wastewater - Evaluate the ability of the photocatalytic sorbent technology to remove and destroy PFAS in real world water matrices. These include things such as, agricultural runoff, livestock operations, and rural water treatment systems. Additionally studying and identifying what co-contaminants will affect treatment performance.2. Refine and scale treatment media for priority PFAS in rural watersheds - Optimize the chemistry and production of the covalent organic framework (COF) sorbent to address the PFAS detected in water systems with a focus on common ones in rural areas.3. Build a field-deployable reactor prototype - Construct and validate a reactor with a 2-liter treatment bed volume, ready for field testing.
Project Methods
.This project will combine new water treatment materials with practical engineering to help rural communities and agricultural operations address PFAS contamination. Work will focus on three main areas:Testing in Real Waters - We will test our new treatment material using water from farms, rural water systems, and small industrial sites. These tests will check how well the system removes PFAS, even when other chemicals from fertilizers, pesticides, or natural sources are present. The treament tesing will then be assed by measuring thePFAS concentration ,by LC-MS, fluoride release measured with ion-selective electrodes, and water quality parameters (pH, COD, TDS) recorded before and after treatment.Improving and Scaling the Material - We will fine-tune the material so it can handle the types of PFAS most often found in rural watersheds, and using extising polymer flow chemistry technieuqs we will synthesize at least 10 g/day of the material.Building a Field-Ready System - We will build a 2 liter water treatment unit that can be set up will be ready to be deployed to a relevant sites or test bed.We will measure success by looking at how much PFAS is removed from water with a goal to target at least 90% reduction in PFAS, the estimated lifetime of the material and overall system, and asses the cost per gallon needed to treat impacted waters. Results will be shared through outreach to relevant stakeholders across the pfas issue including local municipalities and utilizes, relevant contaminated sites and farmers and ranchers who may be impacted by PFAS contamination. By the end of the project, we aim to have a working system that can be tested in real communities, along with data that can help guide local and national PFAS cleanup efforts.