10023243Innovation for removal of toxic poly-fluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) from drinking water.ClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKNextech innovation focusses on efficient removal of toxic PFAS "forever chemicals" from drinking water, with significant economic and health related consequences. Poly-fluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) commonly known as "forever chemicals" are a group of over 4,700 industrial chemicals widely used as water and oil repellent treatments, in food packaging, consumer products, clothing, and firefighting foams. The chemical bond in PFAS is one of the strongest known to nature so it can take over 1,000 years for some PFAS to degrade meaning that almost all the PFAS ever made is still in our environment. PFAS bioaccumulate and are toxic to humans and wildlife causing reduced immunity; increased infections; increased cholesterol; ulcerative colitis; decreased infant birth weight and increased foetal and neonatal mortality, changes to the liver, thyroid and testosterone levels, developmental neurotoxic effects, testicular cancer; kidney cancer. PFAS enter the environment during manufacture, use, and disposal, and despite no natural sources have been recorded in air, water and soils across the globe, contaminating drinking water and food chains. PFAS have been detected in \>90% of European rivers, and all fish sampled from UK fresh, estuarine and coastal waters under Environment Agency's monitoring programmes. Over 95% of humans are believed to have PFAS in their blood. Water utilities providing drinking water have limited options to the "unsolved problem" of PFAS removal and all are cumbersome, costly, and inefficient. They rely on filtration or capture methods, and all create concentrated PFAS waste that needs to be disposed of or returned to the environment. Nextech response to this need combines two technologies involving low-cost, efficient capture/filtration to increase removal rate and combining a PFAS destruction technology in backwash effluent, completely eliminating the toxic chemicals in a combined process. The need is large, global, and affects everyone irrespective of economic, social, environmental, cultural or political status.