New Partnership Formed to Treat and Destroy PFAS from Municipal Water Systems

Photo Credit: Ovivo

Ovivo Inc. (“Ovivo”), a global provider of water and wastewater treatment equipment, technologies and systems, announced a new strategic partnership with E2metrix Inc. (“E2metrix” and together with Ovivo, the “Partners”) to develop and commercialize a complete integrated solution to treat and destroy perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), commonly called the forever chemicals, and other emerging contaminants present in water and wastewater. The solution will permanently safeguard public health and provide a viable onsite PFAS destruction option to their customers.

Since December 2021, Ovivo and E2metrix have been exclusively collaborating to develop an onsite commercially viable treatment system to remove and destroy PFAS present in municipal drinking water utilizing an electrochemical oxidation technology at the heart of the integrated solution. The partners are currently piloting a solution in Alabama that has delivered impressive results with up to 99% reduction of PFOS and PFOA and over 85% reduction of total detectable PFAS in the water treated. The integrated solution is not only removing PFAS but is mineralizing these forever chemicals into their elemental parts of carbon and fluorine, returning safe water back to the environment at a full-scale facility.

In conjunction with this exclusive collaboration, Ovivo made a strategic investment and took an equity participation in E2metrix to strengthen the partnership and accelerate the commercial development of the integrated solution. Other pilots to test the solution for numerous applications, such as municipal drinking water, municipal wastewater, industrial wastewater and landfill leachate are currently being investigated to be deployed in the coming months across North America.

E2metrix is a Sherbrooke, Quebec-based technology company which specializes in the design, development, manufacturing, and commercialization of innovative & clean electro-technologies. Their core offering is ECOTHOR, a patented electrotechnology platform for water, wastewater, and industrial water treatment. Over 200 ECOTHOR reactors have been delivered to date to remove a wide range of complex contaminants. The established ECOTHOR reactors have been modified and tailored to optimize onsite PFAS destruction, under the product name ECOTHOR-EOx.

“We are very excited to be partnering with E2metrix, a promising company that has developed a patented technology to destroy what will soon no more be considered as forever chemicals, contaminating our water sources and causing numerous public health issues,’’ said Marc Barbeau, president and chief executive officer of Ovivo. “In the coming months, we will accelerate the development of an integrated PFAS destruction solution for municipal drinking water which will help our clients comply with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed PFAS levels and therefore protect public health from the PFAS pollution in our drinking water,” added Barbeau.

“We are delighted to welcome Ovivo as a strategic shareholder and partner of E2metrix as we enter into a new and exciting chapter in the history of E2metrix,” said Mohamed Laaroussi, founder and chief executive officer of E2metrix. “Ovivo’s expertise, know-how, resources and global presence will help us accelerate the development and commercialization of an integrated solution to destroy PFAS and other emerging contaminants present in water and wastewater for the benefit of our clients and their communities,’’ added Laaroussi.

Harmful and widespread PFAS contamination is an urgent public health and environmental crisis that communities across the globe are faced with. Scientists in the US have found PFAS in the bloodstreams of nearly all Americans which they tested. Exposure to specific PFAS has been linked to a variety of negative health effects including altered immune and thyroid function, liver disease, lipid and insulin dysregulation, kidney disease, adverse reproductive and development outcomes, and a variety of cancers. In March 2023, the EPA took a key step towards protecting the health of citizens by proposing to establish national legally enforceable drinking water limits for six of the most studied and toxic PFAS. This is the first time in 25 years that new maximum contaminant levels have been proposed for enforceable regulation in drinking water.

Along with the proposed national drinking water regulation, the EPA has also proposed to classify PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (“CERCLA”). If the proposed designation becomes a rule, it would provide a mechanism for government and private entities to hold parties responsible for PFOA and PFOS contamination, liable for the clean up costs. The CERCLA designation would also cause challenges for current PFAS removal solutions available in drinking water as they shift the problem to a solid media, and with the hazardous classification would make disposal of spent media more difficult and expensive. While removal-only based solutions help to temporarily protect public health, they would ultimately require society to address PFAS over and over again in a never-ending cycle if the PFAS are not destroyed. This collaboration between Ovivo and E2metrix is dedicated to establishing the next generation of PFAS solutions to destroy the problem onsite forever and protect public health.