NEWPORT NEWS — Jefferson Lab in Newport News recently received a $7.5 million grant from the Department of Energy to adapt a particle accelerator that could eventually be used in wastewater treatment plants to break down “perpetual chemicals.”
The technology is currently locked away in the lab, but Jeff Lab team scientist John Venekate, along with accelerator Gianluigi Ciovatti, are working to develop a compact accelerator for wastewater recovery.
“This funding will help bridge the gap between our current proof-of-principle of this technology and a level where, with more time and investment, we could make a demonstrator that can be used by industry,” Vennekate said.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances—or PFAS—are a class of compounds used to create water-, stain-, and grease-resistant products. The military contributed to PFAS contamination with the use of chemical-laced firefighting foam. The foam was used during military exercises in the 1950s but has since been limited to emergency situations, the Navy said. The substances have been called “eternal chemicals” because most do not break down in the environment.
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Public concern about PFAS entering neighborhoods through groundwater increased in 2023, when the Environmental Protection Agency recommended a national standard for the contaminant in drinking water. His proposed rule outlines that PFAS must have a concentration level much lower than the agency’s previous guideline of 70 parts per trillion to be considered safe.
Following the EPA’s proposed regulation, the Department of Defense in September began investigations into more than 700 facilities suspected of being potentially contaminated with PFAS, posing a drinking water contamination threat to nearby communities. The September briefing specified that about a third of the facilities had been surveyed and that “perpetual chemicals” were leaking from at least 245 US military bases.
In recent years, site inspections have been conducted at or near facilities across Hampton Roads, including St. Juliens Creek Annex and Naval Air Station Oceana. In St. Juliens Creek Annex, 21 groundwater samples on the base were found to have PFAS levels above 70 parts per trillion, officials from the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command said in February. In Virginia Beach, 15 private off-base drinking water wells were tested for perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonate in November 2022, with one testing exceeding 70 parts per trillion, said David Todd, a spokesman for the command.
But these chemicals may not be as timeless as scientists thought. Vennekate said studies now show that PFAS can be broken down by electron beams generated by superconducting radio frequency particle accelerators to the point that the chemicals are harmless.
One of the biggest challenges the Jefferson Lab team has to deal with, he said, is making sure the accelerator can be operated by industry personnel — not just scientists.
“They should be able to operate the machine without multiple people with PhDs in accelerator science,” Vennekate said.
Malachi Schramm, head of Jefferson Lab’s data science division, will help the team develop an automated control system framework with integrated machine learning to operate such compact accelerators.
“Ideally, at some point the sensor will reach a button interface for the customer,” Vennekate said.
In the past, researchers have struggled to contain costs while scaling up accelerator prototypes powerful enough for large wastewater plants because the accelerators required liquid helium, which is difficult to maintain in industrial settings and is very expensive, Venecate said. But the new technology eliminates the need for liquid helium, with the accelerators instead relying on niobium-tin coatings, cryocoolers and copper linings.
Exactly how much the accelerators will cost has not been specified, he said.
Jefferson Lab is working with California-based General Atomics, a technology company interested in producing the accelerators for commercial use. Being able to demonstrate the technology’s new capabilities could help attract the private sector, said Drew Packard, a scientist at General Atomics
“SRF (superconducting radio frequency) technology has great untapped potential to revolutionize environmental remediation approaches and forever chemicals, making the world cleaner and safer,” Packard said.
