PFAS Innovative Treatment Team (PITT)

The following webpage is historic and is no longer being updated. 

Latest PFAS research information

The PFAS Innovative Treatment Team (PITT) was established in Spring 2020 and was a 6-month dedicated, full-time team that brought together multi-disciplined research staff. These researchers concentrated their efforts and expertise on a single problem: disposal and/or destruction of PFAS-contaminated media and waste. The PITT operated in a work environment designed to break down administrative and procedural barriers in an effort to facilitate faster results. 

The PITT worked toward the following goals:

• Assess current and emerging destruction methods being explored by EPA, universities, other research organizations, and industry.
• Explore the efficacy of methods, including consideration of potentially hazardous byproducts .
• Evaluate methods’ feasibility, performance, and costs to better understand potential solutions.

The PITT's work added practical knowledge to EPA’s efforts under the PFAS Action Plan. States, tribes, and local governments will be able to use this information to select the approach that best fits their circumstances, leading to greater confidence in cleanup operations and safer communities. 

PITT Research Briefs

As part of the PITT’s efforts, EPA researchers considered whether existing destruction technologies could be applied to PFAS-contaminated media and waste. Researchers developed a series of Research Briefs that provide an overview of four technologies that were identified by the PITT as promising technologies for destroying PFAS, and also provides an overview of the research underway by the EPA’s Office of Research and Development to further explore these technologies. Because research is still needed to evaluate these technologies for PFAS destruction, these Research Briefs should not be considered an endorsement or recommendation to use this technology to destroy PFAS.

• Potential PFAS Destruction Technology: Electrochemical Oxidation (pdf) (316.19 KB)
• Potential PFAS Destruction Technology: Mechanochemical Degradation (pdf) (312.32 KB)
• Potential PFAS Destruction Technology: Pyrolysis and Gasification (pdf) (351.64 KB)
• Potential PFAS Destruction Technology: Supercritical Water Oxidation (pdf) (412.1 KB)