Across the UK and Europe, more sites are now testing positive for PFAS, the so-called “forever chemicals” used for years in foams, coatings and packaging. Utilities, food processors and industrial plants are suddenly being asked awkward questions: What is in our water? Are we compliant? How do we deal with this without rebuilding the whole treatment plant?
That is the starting point for many conversations about ozone and PFAS.
PFAS in real plants: why it is not a simple fix
PFAS are incredibly stable. Once they reach groundwater, surface water or wastewater streams, they tend to stay there. Traditional barriers such as granular activated carbon or membranes can remove a lot, but they often struggle with:
PFAS precursors that are not fully captured or measured
High organic load that exhausts carbon faster than expected
Rising operating costs due to frequent media change-outs
So even when a plant “has a solution on paper”, the day-to-day reality can be expensive and hard to predict. This is usually where the link between ozone and PFAS treatment begins to make sense, because operators need tools that relieve pressure on their core PFAS removal stage.
What happens if nothing changes?
If a site keeps running a PFAS-impacted stream through a conventional setup with no optimisation, three things usually follow:
Higher OPEX – activated carbon and membrane elements need replacing more often.
Compliance risk – as limits tighten, small performance swings can push you over the line.
Operational pressure – engineers spend more time firefighting, less time improving the process.
In other words, PFAS becomes not just an environmental issue, but a long-term business and reputation risk.
Where ozone application fits in
This is where ozone starts to earn its place, not as a magic bullet, but as a smart supporting step. In a typical treatment train, an ozone generator produces ozone from dry air or oxygen. The gas is transferred into the process stream to form ozone water, with a carefully controlled level of dissolved ozone.
In the context of ozone and PFAS control, dissolved ozone is used to:
Oxidise organic matter that would otherwise block or exhaust carbon
Convert some PFAS precursors into forms that can be captured more easily
Improve overall water quality (odour, colour and COD) before the main PFAS barrier
Because ozone naturally breaks back down to oxygen, this extra oxidation step does not introduce new persistent chemicals into the system.
A simple example
Imagine a site treating landfill leachate with PFAS and high organic load. The original plant relies only on carbon. Media life is short, operating costs are high and compliance is always on the edge.
By adding an ozone generator and contact stage before the carbon, the operator can reduce organic load and deal with some precursors. In practice, this often means:
Longer carbon life
More stable PFAS removal
Fewer emergency media change-outs
Here, ozone and PFAS management work hand in hand, not as competing technologies.
What does a modern ozone water system look like?
A well-designed system will typically include:
An energy-efficient ozone generator sized to the real flow and load
Injection equipment to transfer ozone into the water with high efficiency
Online monitoring to keep dissolved ozone in the right operating window
Safe off-gas treatment so excess ozone is destroyed before venting
The result is a controlled, repeatable oxidation step that can be tuned as regulations or flows change.
The pay-off: why operators are looking at ozone now
When you put all of this together, the benefits become clear:
Lower lifecycle costs for downstream media
Greater resilience as PFAS limits tighten over time
Smaller chemical footprint, since ozone decomposes back to oxygen
Better overall water quality, not just PFAS numbers on a lab report
PFAS will remain one of the toughest groups of contaminants to deal with. But by combining adsorption or membranes with a properly engineered dissolved ozone stage, plant owners can move from “we have a PFAS crisis” to “we have a stable, manageable process”.
For a wider policy and regulatory overview, you can also refer to the UK Drinking Water Inspectorate’s guidance on PFAS and “forever chemicals.