The NuQuatic Technology
A NOVEL TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM
The novelty behind NuQuatic’s proprietary and patented ADVANTAGE™ process is the use of an aluminum adsorbent that is continuously recycled within the process to capture and remove PFAS from a source water. The presence of aluminum uniquely introduced into the treatment stream improves removal efficiency over alternative separation technologies and enables treatment of water with high organic co-contaminants for which competing adsorption technologies are not cost-effective. The recycling of a non-toxic adsorbent provides significant cost savings and enables treatment of high concentration PFAS waters. Integration of an electrolytic destruction process step provides a pathway to complete on-site management that is cost effective.
Effective
Polyfluorinated compounds or PFAS are highly persistent toxic substances that have been incorporated into numerous industrial products which require removal to extremely low concentrations to meet regulatory criteria. PFAS remediation solutions to date have not demonstrated capability to affordably treat PFAS. The ADVANTAGE™ process, without the necessity of expensive pre-treatment processing, has been proven to meet PFAS MCLs even for complex waters containing co-contaminants cost-effectively. As a result, our technology enables responsible parties to protect public health and enhance the well-being of individuals and families.
Scalable
The ADVANTAGE™ process relies on conventional equipment used at a commercial scale in water treatment that is configured and operated under unique conditions.
Sustainable
We believe in responsible waste management. Our proprietary technology minimizes waste generation by removing and destroying PFAS within the treatment system, eliminating the need to transport concentrated PFAS to an off-site location for destruction or disposal. Apart from logistical energy savings, the ADVANTAGE™ process is designed and engineered to offer a complete PFAS treatment solution at an energy consumption profile that is a fraction of just the destruction process of competing technologies alone.
Affordable
The ADVANTAGE™ process delivers an entire PFAS treatment train (removal, concentration, and destruction) at a life-cycle cost that materially bends the PFAS treatment cost curve offering the prospect of a truly commercially affordable PFAS treatment solution.
The NuQuatic Resume
PROVEN CAPABILITY
NuQuatic’s ability to rapidly deploy large scale water treatment processes was put to the test in April of 2020. The State of Florida had a brewing crisis on its hands when a lined phosphate process stack at Tampa Bay’s Piney Point site began leaking, threatening to spill 800 million gallons of toxic waste into Tampa Bay. To address this emergency, Florida called on NuQuatic to deploy our galvanic and electrolytic treatment process for phosphorus and nitrogen. Working around the clock NuQuatic achieved the impossible in building a fully operational treatment facility in 17 long days and nights. We were successful in treating hundreds of millions of gallons of this toxic water to standards that met or exceeded surface discharge requirements at treatment rates of over 1,000 GPM. NuQuatic is humbly grateful for the opportunity to have led the effort to avert a major environmental disaster in the Tampa Bay metropolitan area. Additional large scale nutrient removal treatment systems were designed, constructed, and operated at Lake Apopka and Lake Okeechobee
The underlying technology that supported nutrient treatment was further developed and extended in the ADVANTAGE™ process to collect, concentrate, and destroy PFAS. Modifications include recycling of the aluminum adsorbent and incorporation of an integrated destruction step to enable treating and destroying PFAS on-site. The ADVANTAGE™ process has been proven effective at removing PFAS from complex waters such as municipal wastewater and groundwater with high levels of organic co-contaminants at the bench and in field studies.
ADVANTAGE™ PFAS TREATMENT: HYDROCARBON CO-CONTAMINATED WATER
2000 gallons of groundwater containing 60+ mg/L of total organic carbon and 10,000 ng/L of total PFAS was treated under continuous flow conditions to achieve MCLs in the effluent with no pretreatment; PFAS concentrated into 1.5 Liters, and 99.87% mineralization.
ADVANTAGE™ PFAS TREATMENT: MUNICIPAL WASTEWATER
PFAS-spiked wastewater with total organic carbon up to 70 mg/L treated to achieve MCLs for 62 days of continuous flow; Aluminum impact proven by testing same source without aluminum resulting in significantly less PFAS removal.
Aluminum continuously recycled, demonstrating the ADVANTAGE™ Process
ADVANTAGE™ HIGH-CONCENTRATION PFAS ADAPTABILITY
Treated groundwater containing influent total PFAS concentrations ranging from 50,000 ng/L to 750,000 ng/L
Treated 1,200 gallons of groundwater representative of expected groundwater extraction scenario from former industrial site. The water contained TOC of 10 mg/L and PFAS effluent levels met regulatory discharge requirements. To demonstrate the system’s adaptability to changes in influent PFAS concentrations, higher concentration water up to 750,000 ng/L was also treated to similar effluent levels with no change in operating parameters and cost.
LAKE APOPKA PHOSPHOROUS REMOVAL
NuQuatic’s Apopka facility, a 7,500 GPM treatment plant, operated 2019 to 2024.
LAKE OKEECHOBEE PHOSPHOROUS REMOVAL
NuQuatic’s Okeechobee 6000 GPM plant operated in 2024 and 2025NuQuatic’s Lake Okeechobee plant deployed a state of the art galvanic process to treat up to 6,000 GPM of lake water and remove phosphorus to less than 100 ug/L. NuQuatic designed, constructed, and operated the plant under contract to the South Florida Water Management District. Unfortunately, influent phosphorus levels were found to be near the effluent treatment goal making the project economically unsustainable.
TAMPA BAY EMERGENCY CLEANUP
Effectively treating water within 17 days of a State of Emergency at Florida’s Tampa Bay Piney Point facility.Effectively treated water within 17 days of a State of Emergency at Florida’s Tampa Bay Piney Point facility. All treated water met state and federal discharge requirements. Removed a total of 350 metric tons of phosphorus and 400 metric tons of nitrogen in less than one year.
