We are delighted to announce that our PFAS-busting technology has been awarded a Gold Award in this year’s International Green Apple Environment Awards.
We have also been accepted as a Green World Ambassador and will be entered into future international rounds of this prestigious awards process.
The Green Apple Awards, now in their 30th year, are run by The Green Organisation, an independent, international, non-political, non-profit, environmental group, dedicated to recognising, promoting and rewarding environmental best practice around the planet.
Last year we were awarded a Bronze Award for our REACT-Sys® thermal reactivation process, whereby spent activated carbons are recycled at our UK facility ready to be re-used by customers in their environmental purification applications. Reactivating spent carbon in this way, rather than the use and subsequent disposal of virgin media, offers a carbon footprint saving of around 90%, which is why our entry was successful last year.
This year, we achieved the top-level Gold Award for our PFAS-busting technology, which we call “Search, Capture & Destroy”. The name PFAS refers to a large group of industrial chemicals that are very persistent in the environment and are harmful to humans and animals. They have been used extensively for decades in a number of industrial sectors, and now they represent a major environmental concern for the water industry, other industrial sectors and the wider general public.
Our PFAS-busting technology consists of three key steps:
- Removal of PFAS compounds using optimised granular activated carbons (GAC) from our FiltraCarb® CH range, often making use of our AquaSorber® mobile carbon filters;
- Recycling of the spent carbon via our REACT-Sys® thermal reactivation process;
- Destruction of the desorbed PFAS molecules via sophisticated downstream thermal oxidisers and chemical scrubbers.
Independent testing has proved that our advanced reactivation process, provisionally called REACT-Sys+, reduces the emissions of PFAS down to background levels, in the gas phase. Our liquid phase emissions have zero detectable PFAS at all. Hence our bold claim that we ‘Search, Capture & Destroy’ these harmful compounds, which are unhelpfully referred to in some circles as ‘forever chemicals’. They are certainly not ‘forever’ when they come face-to-face with our technology!
This year’s awards ceremony was not held in its usual location, the UK Houses of Parliament. Instead, they were held in the beautiful setting of Kensington Palace’s Orangery, where a representative from last year’s global winner, Yealands Wine Group from New Zealand, presented the deserving winners with their awards.
Pictured above are our Head of Strategic Partnerships, David Reay, together with our Chief Executive Officer, Jason Sutton, holding our award and winner’s certificate at the event in London.
We would like to thank the Founder and CEO of the Green Organisation, Roger Wolens, as well as the rest of his team, for organising this fabulous event and driving awareness and interest in global environmental best practice for the past three decades.
We would also like to congratulate our technical teams, consisting of expert industrial chemists and engineers, for developing a range of carbons optimised for PFAS abatement, as well as the downstream processes for recycling the spent carbons and destroying the PFAS molecules.
As we start down the road of being a Green World Ambassador, we can all take great pride in the fact that we have a home-grown solution to a serious global environmental issue, and that we can assist affected organisations with the safe removal and destruction of this particularly harmful group of chemicals.
As governments and regulators around the world start to impose tighter restrictions on the use and acceptable levels of these PFAS-group compounds, we stand ready to implement best-in-class abatement solutions that we are sure will make the environment a safer place for future generations.
