PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a family of more than 15,000 synthetic chemicals that have been used since the mid-20th century in products ranging from nonstick cookware and water-resistant clothing to food packaging and firefighting foams. Valued for their exceptional ability to repel water, heat and grease, PFAS were once considered a marvel of modern chemistry. But the same properties that made them commercially indispensable make them extraordinarily difficult to remove from the environment.  

The carbon-fluorine bond at the heart of every PFAS molecule is among the strongest in organic chemistry. And because PFAS don’t break down naturally, they leach into groundwater and surface water, moving through the food chain and accumulating in the human body over time. They have been detected in water sources across nearly every region of the world — and in the bloodstreams of the vast majority of people on earth.  

When PFAS contamination emerged as a serious public health concern, utilities and industrial operators turned to the tools already at their disposal – activated carbon adsorption, ion exchange resins, and reverse osmosis membranes  – in an attempt to remove these compounds from water supplies. But with each tool, they ran into the same fundamental limitation: they capture and concentrate the compounds rather than destroying them.  

That distinction — relocation versus removal — is at the center of one of the most pressing environmental compliance challenges utilities and industrial operators face today. And it is the animating argument of Lummus Technology's newly published white paper, Destroying "Forever Chemicals" with Zimpro® Electro-Oxidation (ZEO). 

The Regulatory Window Is Now 
The need for a better approach has never been more urgent — or more consequential for organizations that wait. 

The paper arrives at a moment of acute regulatory pressure. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency issued its first-ever national drinking water standards for PFAS in 2024, setting enforceable limits at parts-per-trillion levels. In Europe, mandatory PFAS monitoring requirements under the recast EU Drinking Water Directive took effect in January 2026, with individual member states moving even faster – restricting thousands of PFAS substances and enacting national legislation of their own. New liability frameworks in the U.S. are simultaneously exposing facility operators to cleanup obligations that can span decades. For utilities and industrial operators across every major jurisdiction, the question is no longer whether to act on PFAS – it’s how.  

Why Conventional Approaches Are No Longer Enough  
The paper is structured in four parts: it establishes why PFAS are uniquely difficult to treat; reviews the limits of existing separation technologies; surveys the landscape of emerging destruction methods; and makes the detailed technical and commercial case for ZEO as the leading deployable solution. Below are the key findings: 

Finding 1: Traditional Treatment Methods Are a Dead End 
The same limitation runs through every conventional separation technology: they isolate PFAS rather than eliminating them, transferring the compounds into spent media or reject streams that still require incineration or landfilling. As disposal options tighten and regulatory thresholds decline, the operational and financial cost of this cycle grows — and the liability simply accumulates elsewhere. 

Finding 2: ZEO Achieves True, Verified Destruction 
In 2024, Lummus Technology and Element Six established a partnership to introduce scalable and viable solutions to treat, destroy and eliminate PFAS from water. The Zimpro® Electro-Oxidation (ZEO) system takes a fundamentally different approach. Rather than capturing PFAS, ZEO uses electrical energy to generate highly reactive hydroxyl radicals directly within the contaminated water stream. These radicals attack and cleave the carbon-fluorine bond — the defining feature of PFAS persistence — mineralizing the compounds into carbon dioxide, water, and fluoride ions. 

The system uses Element Six’s pure boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes engineered for exceptional conductivity and corrosion resistance. These electrodes can sustain current densities up to 100 times greater than those of conventional electrochemical systems, enabling the oxidation of even the most stable PFAS molecules. The bipolar reactor design prevents deposit buildup, ensuring consistent performance over an electrode lifespan of 10 to 20 years — compared to one to two years for conventional coated systems. 

Finding 3: The Pilot Data Is Compelling 
ZEO has been validated through controlled laboratory testing and real-world pilot operations at Lummus' Water Laboratory in Houston, Texas, following EPA Method 1633. In a full-scale pilot treating landfill leachate — one of the most chemically challenging matrices available, given its high solids content and ionic strength — the system achieved 99.996% total PFAS reduction across 14 individual compounds after a foam fractionation concentration step. 

The results spanned both long-chain compounds such as PFOS and PFOA and shorter-chain species that conventional systems routinely miss. Stoichiometric fluoride recovery confirmed complete C-F bond cleavage. The system maintained stable operation throughout, despite the presence of organic matter and cations that commonly foul competing technologies. 

Finding 4: The System Is Deployable Today
Unlike high-temperature incineration or supercritical water oxidation — both of which face significant infrastructure, safety, and scalability barriers — ZEO operates under ambient conditions with no chemical reagents. The process is electrically driven, fully automated, and modular: a single skid-mounted unit can treat thousands of gallons per day, and systems can be scaled in parallel to accommodate higher volumes. A commercial-scale reactor is already operational, and pilot units are available for client demonstration. 

ZEO integrates readily into existing treatment workflows, either as a polishing step following concentration technologies such as ion exchange, reverse osmosis, or foam fractionation, or as a standalone destruction unit for brine and leachate streams. 

The Bottom Line 
PFAS contamination is solvable, but only with technology designed to destroy, not merely contain. As regulatory enforcement tightens, organizations that invest now in destruction-first strategies will be better positioned for the compliance environment ahead. Those that continue to rely on separation technologies alone are managing a liability that will only grow. 

Lummus Technology’s ZEO system offers a proven, scalable, and commercially ready path to full PFAS elimination. The white paper makes the case — the science, the data, and a clear deployment pathway for organizations ready to stop managing PFAS and start destroying them. 

Read the Full White Paper 
Destroying "Forever Chemicals" with Zimpro® Electro-Oxidation (ZEO) is available now as a free resource on the Lummus Technology website. It includes the complete technical overview, pilot data tables, system design specifications, and guidance on integrating ZEO into existing treatment infrastructure. 

→ Download the paper at Lummus Zimpro PFAS White Paper

To speak with a Lummus PFAS specialist or request a pilot evaluation, contact chad.felch@lummustech.com or call +1 (715) 571-5129.