Bill Gates-Backed Project Seeks To Remove PFAS From Wastewater
With a well-known and innovative backer, a new project has emerged that could put a dent in one of the country’s most notorious drinking water contaminants: per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
Allonnia LLC, which is backed financially in part by billionaire Bill Gates, is seeking to eliminate PFAS — which may cause long-lasting health impacts following their consumption through drinking water — from wastewater and soil.
PFAS finds its way into source water and eventually household drinking water largely as a result of its presence in industrial wastewater. To potentially remove PFAS from wastewater, Allonnia is attempting to engineer microbes that can eliminate it.
“Starting with PFAS was appealing because the chemicals have proved so difficult and expensive to deal with, [Allonnia CEO Nicole] Richards said,” per Bloomberg. “The substances, which don’t break down over time, now show up in drinking water and people’s blood, and have been linked to kidney cancer, testicular cancer and weakened immune response. Allonnia’s potential solution, Richards said, ‘cleaves to the carbon-fluorine bond to destroy it.’”
There is no strict federal limit on the level of PFAS that drinking water can hold, though the U.S. EPA does maintain advisories for the contaminants. Many states have taken matters into their own hands by setting their own drinking water limits and attempting to hold industrial polluters financially responsible for introducing the chemicals into water supplies. But these actions may still be states’ best bets for a while, as Allonnia’s attempt at a more direct solution will take time.
“Allonnia, named after a now-extinct sea sponge that filtered the oceans in the Cambrian era, will ‘bioprospect’ to find the right enzymes or microbes for specific challenges,” Financial Review reported. “The process isn’t fast: Richards said in an interview that it will likely be about two years before the spinoff is ready to pilot an effort in the natural world.”
Partially backed by Gates’ Cascade Investments firm, Allonnia raised $40 million in Series A funding to try and turn its vision into a reality. The novel idea may take some time to prepare, but if it can truly stop PFAS at its source, it will be a welcomed solution to one of the country’s most prevalent drinking water issues.
To read more about methods for ridding wastewater of unwanted chemicals, visit Water Online’s Wastewater Contaminant Removal Solutions Center.