The objective of this project is to demonstrate supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) at a permitted facility as a viable means to destroy stockpiles of fluorinated aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF). Specific project objectives include the following:

• Validating performance of a permitted SCWO facility.
• Understanding the impacts different AFFF formulations have on cost and performance.
• Characterizing the outputs of the process using new methods not previously available including Other Test Method (OTM)-45, OTM-50, and OTM-55 sampling and analytical approaches and compare these results to those obtained using a modified Method TO-13 sampling approach and respective OTM analyte lists.
• Performing additional validation of the fluorine mass balance.
• Validating that there are no potential adverse impacts to the surrounding community.

SCWO is a reaction that occurs above the supercritical point of water in the presence of oxygen. Above the supercritical point, there is no distinction between gas and liquid, and the properties of the fluid change dramatically, facilitating mass transfer and reaction kinetics. At these conditions, the carbon-fluorine bond dissociation energy is overcome, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are mineralized to products including carbon dioxide, water, and hydrofluoric acid, which is neutralized to a salt. SCWO results in destruction of PFAS (<10 seconds), is equally effective on short- and long-chain compounds, and is not inhibited by organic co-occurring chemicals.

Battelle developed a technology based on SCWO (the PFAS Annihilator^®) that has achieved greater than 99.99% destruction of PFAS in impacted media. Destruction of AFFF using SCWO has been demonstrated in the laboratory and in the field. This technology is now owned and operated by Revive Environmental LLC (Revive). Revive operates a full-scale production facility in Columbus, Ohio, which houses three operational PFAS Annihilator^® units, currently being used commercially to treat AFFF concentrate. The primary outcome of this project is to validate that a permitted, fixed SCWO facility is an acceptable alternative to receive and dispose of stockpiles of PFAS-containing AFFF.

If successful, this demonstration will provide an expedited alternative for validating SCWO as an alternative destruction option for AFFF. The demonstration tasks provide the opportunity to generate additional fluorine mass balance data and validate an alternative method to collect samples for OTM-45, OTM-50, and OTM-55 analyses which are better suited (lower cost and more easily implemented) for PFAS destruction technologies such as SCWO compared to the OTM sampling methods, which were designed for large-scale operations (e.g., incinerators, power plants). The results of this demonstration prioritize the development of an affordable, deployable solution to protect critical installations and personnel, bolstering national defense capabilities. (Anticipated Project Completion - 2026)