Puragen were delighted to welcome Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins to its engineering facility on 13th March, together with two representatives from biogas trade association ADBA.
As well as being Chesterfield’s long-serving Member of Parliament, Toby is Chair of the government’s Environmental Audit Select Committee, so was particularly interested in Puragen’s work in the field of environmental purification, particularly in the areas of PFAS abatement and biogas purification.
Puragen’s CEO, Jason Sutton, together with Head of Strategic Partnerships David Reay, provided an overview of the company’s operations and its award-winning technologies for the removal and destruction of PFAS, a technology called “Search, Capture & Destroy”, as well as its system for recycling high-sulfur spent carbons from the biogas and biomethane sector. They also gave an introduction to the work done by Puragen Engineering and the convenience of its ‘plug & play’ mobile filters in numerous environmental purification applications.
Reflecting on the government’s recent PFAS Plan, Toby mentioned the importance of the ‘polluter pays’ principle, whereby the companies who originally used or emitted PFAS group chemicals into the environment should be made responsible for the cost of clean-up, rather than water companies and consumers. He also expressed support for a more widespread ‘universal ban’ on PFAS chemicals, albeit with derogations for specific applications, rather than a case-by-case treatment of individual PFAS compounds, which would be complex and take a long time study and implement.
The visitors from ADBA, External Affairs Lead Cameron Ball and Policy Lead Gareth Mottram, reinforced the importance of home-grown low carbon renewable energy, as a replacement for imported fossil fuels, particularly in light of current geopolitical issues affecting fuel availability and pricing.
The visit concluded with a tour of our workshops, where our mobile activated carbon filters are produced before being used for various water and gas phase purification applications, part of the company’s overall circular filtration service, that also includes spent carbon recycling at the Immingham thermal reactivation facility.
The Puragen team would like to thank Toby for his time and the interest he showed in our technology and operations and wish him every success in his work with the Environmental Audit Committee, particularly the ongoing study into PFAS group chemicals.
