Ecolab 2

Treatment of Perfluoroalkyl
Substances (PFAS)

Company Background
A trusted partner at more than one million customer locations, Ecolab is the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services that protect people and vital resources. With 2017 sales of $14 billion and 48,000 associates, Ecolab delivers comprehensive solutions and on-site service to promote safe food, maintain clean environments, optimize water and energy use and improve operational efficiencies for customers in the food, healthcare, energy, hospitality and industrial markets in more than 170 countries around the world.

Open Innovation Challenge 
Seeking treatment solutions that can significantly reduce the amount of Perfluoalkyl substances (PFAS) in water entering food and beverage manufacturing facilities.

Reason for Seeking External Innovation Partnership
PFAS are completely fluorinated organic compounds that are not readily biodegradable and can bioaccumulate.   PFAS potentially can contaminate ground water, surface water and drinking water sources.  Despite PFAS production being phased-out in many countries, its persistence in the environment will result in these compounds continuing to be a concern for many years to come.  Water is often used within the food and beverage industry as an ingredient, so ensuring this water is PFAS-free is an important food safety consideration.

Scope of Solution Space

  • Solutions must be applicable to treatment of the water at the food and beverage manufacturing site and could be used to either treat all the water entering the site or just the water used as an ingredient
  • Solutions should provide cost benefits over existing commercial solutions
  • Solutions should consider the impact of water quality on the food and beverage producer’s product quality

Innovation Solutions Not of Interest

  • Existing commercial solutions
    • Reverse Osmosis (RO) or Nanofiltration (NF)
    • Granular Activated Carbon (GAC)
    • Anion Exchange Resin (IX)
    • Powdered Activated Carbon (PAC)

Proposal Response Date Deadline
August 28, 2020

Website Link
www.ecolab.com  and   www.boldopenmn.com

Contact Information
BoldOpen / AURI – boldopen@auri.org

A trusted partner at nearly three million customer locations, Ecolab is the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services that protect people and vital resources. Around the world, customers in foodservice, food processing, hospitality, healthcare, industrial, and oil and gas markets choose Ecolab products and services to keep their environment clean and safe, operate efficiently and achieve sustainability goals.