The Australian Research Council (ARC) this week announced $8.2 million in grants as part of the national PFAS Remediation Research Program. Airservices Australia is pleased to announce its support for two of the awarded projects, both of which are being led by researchers from The University of Queensland (UQ).
Airservices has pledged funding and resources to the two projects, which propose the development of innovative technologies to remediate environments contaminated by per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). This research will be used to inform our national management program for the 20 airport sites affected by the historical use of PFAS-containing fire fighting foams.
The projects Airservices will support are as follows:
Remediation of PFAS contaminated soil using soil washing and immobilisation
UQ’s Professor Jochen Mueller is leading the project to provide a scientific basis for understanding the benefits and limitations associated with soil washing and immobilisation techniques. Professor Mueller’s team is working with various industry partners – including Airservices, Brisbane Airport, the CSIRO and Queensland Health – to ensure a focus on environmental and commercial outcomes.
Integrated, scalable solutions for PFAS removal and destruction
Professor Jurg Keller has proposed the development of a ready-to-deploy and scalable modular technology for the removal of PFAS from a variety of sources to make them safe for human consumption. The concept draws on recent advances in water treatment and electrochemistry that is based on ion exchange, nanofiltration and advanced oxidation.
Airservices has committed at least three years of support to these critical research projects.
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