By Molly Magennis
Victoria University (VU) has been selected as a research partner by an Australian company who aims to reduce water pollution through water treatment innovations.
The Environmental Group Limited’s EGL Water selected VU as a research partner from several Australian universities based on VU’s own expertise in water research.
VU will help to verify how effective EGL’s water treatment system is in removing per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from water.
PFAs are a group of more than 4000 man-made chemicals that have a proven effectiveness in resisting heat, stains and grease.
Because of their ability to travel long distances through soil and infiltrate groundwater, industry and governments have now recognised PFAS as harmful to the environment.
Initial pilot tests done on the small-scale laboratory rig of the EGL Water system and a VU-made laboratory scale rig at VU’s Werribee water research centre, revealed an 87 per cent reliable reduction in PFAS contaminated water using EGL’s technology.
The system removed more than 80 per cent of PFAS from contaminated soil and water.
Executive director of VU’s Institute for Sustainability and Liveable Cities Professor Stephen Gray said the university was pleased to help EGL identify water treatment opportunities for its technology.
“The EGL technology has immense potential and we are now looking to extend the research from laboratory-scale to larger-scale pilot studies for treatment of PFAS-contaminated soil,” he said.
