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PFAS remediation services
PFAS remediation services, with an end state instead of a transfer.
Most PFAS options move the contaminant onto a medium, into a concentrate, or onto a truck. Nelson works the destruction end of that chain, with mobile high-temperature treatment that is pilot-validated and selected as a NATO test bed for PFAS-impacted military soil.
NATO
Test bed selection for military PFAS
Pilot-validated
Mobile high-temperature destruction
North America
Criteria tracked by state and province
The problem
PFAS does not break down, it relocates.
The carbon-fluorine bond is why these compounds persist, and why conventional soil and water treatment leaves the inventory intact. Granular activated carbon, ion exchange, and foam fractionation are effective at capture, and each ends with a loaded medium or a concentrate that still holds the PFAS.
That residual is the part of the programme that decides whether a site is finished. Disposal routes are narrowing across jurisdictions, and a remedy whose last step is a manifest is a remedy that keeps the liability alive.
The approach
Capture where it fits, destroy where it counts.
Nelson's contribution sits at the destruction step: sustained high temperature with controlled residence time and engineered gas handling, delivered by mobile plant so that PFAS-impacted material does not have to travel through jurisdictions that restrict its movement.
This work is described as pilot-validated rather than as decades of production, which is the language reserved for hydrocarbon remediation. The NATO Science and Technology Organization selected the technology as a test bed for PFAS-impacted military-base soil, which is independent scrutiny rather than a claim.
Where it applies
PFAS remediation is scoped when:
AFFF drove the releaseFire-training areas, hangars, crash sites, and airport aprons carry decades of aqueous film-forming foam, usually with a well-defined impacted soil volume.
A separation step has produced a residualSpent carbon, loaded resin, and fractionation concentrate all need a destruction route before the file can close.
Off-site disposal is restrictedWhere landfill or transport is closed to PFAS-impacted material, on-site treatment is frequently the only remedy available.
The site is remote or securedDefence and northern sites often cannot move material off site at all, which is the case mobile plant is built for.
Criteria are still movingFederal and provincial and state limits are tightening on different timelines, so the remedy has to hold up against the next threshold as well as the current one.
Project evidence
PFAS evidence and reference material.
NATO PFAS test bedSelected as a NATO PFAS test bed selection for PFAS-impacted military-base soil. Mobile high-temperature destruction sized to AFFF-driven contamination profiles.
PFAS remediation, the long readWhy PFAS behaves the way it does, what each treatment family actually achieves, and where destruction fits in the chain.
PFAS destruction technologies comparedThermal destruction against granular activated carbon, ion exchange, and foam fractionation on end state, residual, and cost.
The Hub
PFAS contamination map
Known and emerging PFAS sites across North America, with the criteria and deadlines each state and province applies.
Open the map
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Frequently asked
What do PFAS remediation services actually cover?
In practice a PFAS programme has three parts: delineating the impacted soil and water, capturing or containing what is mobile, and dealing with the residual that capture produces. Nelson works the treatment and destruction end of that chain, with mobile high-temperature systems applied to PFAS-impacted soil and to the residuals separation steps leave behind.
Can PFAS-impacted soil be treated on site?
That is the purpose of a mobile system. Treating on site avoids moving PFAS-impacted material through jurisdictions that increasingly restrict its transport and disposal, and it keeps the end state in the hands of the site owner rather than a downstream facility.
How does destruction differ from granular activated carbon or ion exchange?
Those technologies remove PFAS from water by holding it on a medium. The compound still exists, now concentrated on spent carbon or resin that has to be managed. Destruction is applied to end the molecule, and is often used on exactly the residual those separation steps produce.
Is Nelson's PFAS work commercially proven?
It is pilot-validated and running as a NATO test bed for PFAS-impacted military soil. Nelson keeps that separate from its hydrocarbon remediation record, which spans more than 30 years of production delivery.
Which PFAS compounds drive most cleanup criteria?
PFOA and PFOS are the legacy compounds behind most criteria, together with precursors that convert to them over time. Both resist biological and chemical treatment, which is why they remain the primary targets in AFFF-impacted soil.
Related
PFAS thermal destruction
PFAS remediation, the long read
PFAS destruction technologies compared
NATO PFAS test bed
PFAS regulatory tracker
PFAS contamination map