First Lab, a developer of equipment that breaks down chemical compounds using ultrasound, said on the 14th that it has been selected as the lead organization for a project under Eurostars-3, a European international joint research and development program.
Eurostars-3 is an international R&D support program dedicated to small and medium-sized enterprises, jointly run by Horizon Europe, the European Union's research and innovation program, and Eureka. First Lab has formed a consortium with DABCE, a Swedish water treatment module maker, to jointly develop a mobile treatment system for wastewater containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) over three years.
PFAS are chemicals that barely break down in nature. France and other European countries have recently been introducing levies on PFAS discharges and tightening effluent standards as part of their environmental policies. That has driven growing demand for technology that breaks down PFAS directly at contaminated sites without generating secondary waste.
First Lab will develop the PFAS wastewater treatment system using its own ultrasound technology. Cavitox, the company's ultrasonic wastewater treatment equipment, concentrates ultrasound at a single point to create microbubbles, then uses the intense energy released when the bubbles collapse to sever the carbon-fluorine bonds in PFAS. Because no chemicals such as oxidizing agents are added, no secondary contamination occurs. The company will combine that technology with DABCE's modular water treatment engineering capabilities to develop a container module that can be deployed on site. The approach breaks down PFAS directly at contaminated sites, without transporting wastewater elsewhere or incinerating it at high temperatures.