NCIMB seeks co-development partner for PFAS bioremediation technology

• Accumulation of PFAS in the environment, and the subsequent bioaccumulation of these persistent chemicals is an emerging area of concern for health.
• Remediation technologies based on capture, separation and removal create waste streams which in turn are difficult and costly to treat or dispose of.

• Although PFAS is resistant to biodegradation in the environment, recent work has shown that microbial consortia can transform or degrade PFAS under specific conditions.
• NCIMB Ltd holds the National Collection of Industrial, Food and Marine Bacteria. This collection is comprised of thousands of naturally occurring strains isolated from diverse environments.
• We are developing a microbial screening approach to identifying, combining and optimising naturally occurring strains of bacteria for PFAS remediation.
• The NCIMB collection offers a unique opportunity to develop a solution that enables a cost effective, low energy impact solution for destruction of the PFAS class of chemicals to inorganic fluoride.

Our microbial collection was created with a focus on industrial and environmental applications, and includes species well known for the production of enzymes, metabolites and chemical transformations. For example, the collection includes more than 700 strains of Pseudomonas, a genus widely considered of significance in PFAS biotransformation research.

Our proposition is to take a deployment-focused, regulatory friendly non-GM approach, to identify, combine and optimise strains in our microbial collection, for PEFAS biotransformation and defluorination applications.

Bioremediation has the potential to provide low-impact, scalable, cost effective means of treating PFAS in real water systems. Interested in working with us or finding out more? Get in touch!