Forever chemicals: are plasma and bubbles the solution to our problem?

Posted: March 10, 2025

In January last year, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) published results showing that several EU politicians had up to seven PFAS, or “forever chemicals”, in their bodies. The politicians came from nine different European countries and their results were not remarkable—the EEB intended them to demonstrate the average exposure of Europeans to PFAS.^[1]

Forever chemicals are now ubiquitous in our environment—they’ve been found in the arctic, at the bottom of the ocean, and everywhere in between. Concern over PFAS is mounting due to the way they persist in the environment over decades, move around the Earth, and accumulate in humans and wildlife where they can lead to health problems.

An outright ban of all PFAS is unlikely to come soon. Due to their water-repellant properties and thermo-chemical stability, PFAS are used in thousands of products, from non-stick pans and food packaging to wind turbine blades and semiconductors. They’re essential in life-saving medical devices, fire-fighting foams and aerospace applications. While the EU plans to ban certain PFAS in consumer products, it is already making exemptions for essential industrial uses.^[2]

Pervasive, PFAS build up in water and soil, where they make their way into plants, animals, food and water. Drinking contaminated water is one of the main ways in which humans are exposed to forever chemicals, and studies have shown that accumulations of PFAS could harm human health.^[3] Researchers are now exploring innovative removal methods that could help mitigate the negative impacts of PFAS. These new methods go beyond simply filtering and instead explore completely destroying the chemicals, removing them from the environment and protecting humans and nature.

Why are PFAS so hard to remove?

The very features that make PFAS so useful are what makes them hard to remove from our environment: all PFAS contain a carbon-fluorine bond, which is one of the strongest bonds in organic chemistry.^[4] It makes them highly chemically stable, highly persistent and unlikely to degrade naturally. They are also very mobile, and are found across the globe, often far from where they originated. PFAS enter our natural environment in several ways—they’re often found in industrial areas and in run-off from waste-water treatment plants and landfill.

Conventional water purification methods are not effective at removing these chemicals. While carbon filters and reverse osmosis systems can separate PFAS from water by binding to them, the PFAS remain trapped in the carbon filters or membranes, creating a new disposal problem. These “non-destructive methods” are not viable solutions for removing forever chemicals from the environment at scale due to the energy and chemicals required. In recent years, a variety of “destructive” methods have emerged, breaking the carbon-fluorine bond to destroy the long-lasting chemical compound into harmless by-products.

Successful trials remove forever chemicals with plasma

One method that several research teams are exploring is using plasma to completely eliminate PFAS. Plasma treatment involves applying voltages between two electrodes, which creates ionized gas that breaks the molecular bonds of the PFAS.

One team looking into this are researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology (IGB) in Stuttgart, Germany. The AtWaPlas team fed water through a glass and stainless-steel cylinder that treats it with plasma, reducing the molecular chains of the chemicals. The cylinder acts as the ground electrode of the circuit, while a copper mesh acts as a high-voltage electrode. A small gap between the two fills with air, which is converted to plasma when a voltage is applied. As the water passes through the cylinder, the plasma breaks up the molecular chains of the chemicals. This process is repeated, reducing the molecule chains more each time until the PFAS are mineralized and undetectable.

Massachusetts-based startup Onvector is also pilot testing a plasma technology. The company says its Plasma Vortex uses plasma to reliably and cost-effectively break up PFAS molecules into harmless compounds and individual atoms, including fluoride, sulfate, carbon dioxide and water. Its reactor behaves similarly to a cyclone separator, feeding PFAS into a luminous column of plasma-controlled lightning that breaks apart its molecular bonds. Onvector tested its plasma device in collaboration with the US Air Force at a site where fire-fighting foams had created build up of PFAS. It successfully treated 350,000 gallons of groundwater to drinking water standards, destroying 97% of PFAS.^[5]

The bubbles eliminating forever chemicals

Meanwhile, other groups of researchers are testing whether bubbles can solve the same problem.

At Oxford Brookes University, researchers created a hydrodynamic reactor that uses bubbles generated by changes in pressure to remove PFAS from contaminated water.^[6] The eco-friendly and energy-efficient reactor uses fast-moving liquid in small channels to create and pop small bubbles, releasing mechanical, thermal and chemical energy, which helps break down the PFAS. In a 30-minute treatment, the researchers found that the reactor achieved a 36% degradation rate of 11 common PFAS.

In a press release, Professor Iakovos Tzanakis explained "This technology has the potential to revolutionize wastewater treatment, making it safer and more sustainable for communities around the globe, especially in poor countries, as it does not rely on an electricity supply. Moreover, advancements in green hydrodynamic cavitation provide a scalable alternative to current methods, overcoming their limitations.”

The team is now working on scaling up the reactor to handle larger volumes of wastewater, and plan to test the scaled-up process at a wastewater treatment plant in Sweden.

Bubble also form part of the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science’s solution. It combined nanobubble ozone technology with ultraviolet light to destroy forever chemicals. Its scientists used ozone’s highly reactive properties, combined with ultrafine microbubbles and UV light to destroy the carbon-fluoride bond. This separates the chemicals into non-toxic fluorine and carbon dioxide gases.

Plasma and bubbles are just two examples of PFAS-busting technology: Others are exploring supercritical water oxidation, incineration, catalysts and visible light. With engineers and scientists attacking PFAS from all angles, perhaps, in the near future, forever chemicals won’t be quite so eternal.

^{[1] https://eeb.org/high-level-european-politicians-polluted-by-pfas/
[2] https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/eu-plans-ban-forever-chemicals-consumer-products-2025-01-20/
[3] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67101179
[4] https://www.rsc.org/globalassets/04-campaigning-outreach/policy/environment-health-safety-policy/pfas-evidence-report.pdf
[5] https://p4r.31e.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/onvector-case-study-govt-alt-77.pdf
[6] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1385894724050629?via%3Dihub}