PFAS have earned the nickname “forever chemicals” because they persist in the environment and can be difficult to remove from water.
Now, a UWM researcher is teaming up with Argonne National Laboratory to develop a technology designed to capture these contaminants more selectively and efficiently. Their selective membrane technology is especially important in wastewater where current removal methods capture everything at once, creating operational log jams.
Xiaoli Ma, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at UWM, and Lauren Valentino, a chemical engineer and researcher at Argonne, will develop and test advanced membranes that separate PFAS from contaminated water and wastewater. The project is supported by a $500,000 grant from Current/ReNew, with $250,000 going to each institution.