Australia’s EVOCRA delivers patented OzoFractionation® technology with proven remediation, producing a low volume PFAS concentrate ready for destruction.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are one of the world’s most challenging environmental contaminants, prompting global demand for robust, sustainable, and economically viable solutions. Australia’s EVOCRA, through its patented OzoFractionation® process, is leading the way in PFAS removal and promoting its destruction, delivering practical, site-proven results that are driving international partnerships and changing the way industrial, municipal, and remediation sectors approach contaminated water management.
Pilot to global leader: EVOCRA’s journey
EVOCRA’s innovative trajectory began in 2011. Then known as Green Shadows Commercial, the company designed the very first OzoFractionation® pilot system for a gold mine on Tasmania’s rugged west coast. This proof-of-concept plant validated the technology’s ability to remove contaminants from the site’s complex wastewater under real-world conditions with fluctuating flows and chemical impact.
By 2017, EVOCRA had advanced from concept to commercial reality. EVOCRA was selected for its first large-scale PFAS OzoFractionation® deployment at Brisbane’s International Airport. Here, the challenge was immense: multiple water sources contaminated with PFAS-containing firefighting foams, some impacted with levels exceeding 2,000 mg/L — concentrations rarely seen outside emergency response scenarios. The system consistently delivered regulatory-compliant results, successfully remediating water sources that would otherwise have required costly transport and incineration, or permanent isolation. Due to the OzoFractionation® concentrating capabilities, the 20,000,000 litres of impacted water was reduced to less than 100,000 litres of material requiring off-site specialist destruction.
Proven performance
Since this pivotal airport project, EVOCRA’s OzoFractionation® systems have been adopted in a range of challenging applications:
- Surface water remediation at fire training grounds, where mixed contaminant loads defeat other treatment methods.
- Advanced leachate treatment at landfills, reducing both regulatory risk and off-site disposal costs.
- Providing a final PFAS removal polish at major liquid waste facilities, ensuring clients have the ability to exceed emerging discharge standards.
OzoFractionation®’s ability to integrate with both new and legacy infrastructure has proven it as a valuable, flexible tool for industries seeking a reliable upgrade path without disruptive capital works.
How does foam fractionation work?
In simple terms, the process injects a fine stream of gas, usually air, near the base of a column or tank containing the contaminated water. As the bubbles of gas rise, they capture surface-active contaminants, including PFAS, concentrating and moving the pollutants to the foam that collects at the top of the column. As the foam accumulates, it pushes into an engineered collection head, where it collapses and drains as a concentrated liquid ‘foamate.’ Typically, the foamate is less than 5% of the original raw water volume for primary fractionation columns, and less than 1% after a secondary fractionation stage, driving huge reductions in waste volume, allowing more cost-effective downstream management.
Unlike traditional approaches, where pretreatment processes are required to deal with co-contaminants that produced additional waste materials and are often impacted with PFAS, all foam fractionation systems, including OzoFractionation®, deliver highly effective separation of surface-active pollutants via ‘floatation.’ By contrast, however, OzoFractionation®, which was first applied to highly polluted, complex co-contaminated wastewater environments, was deliberately enhanced with ozone to provide the benefits of oxidation, bubble stability, and increase bubble electrostatics. These benefits that ozone provides improve floatation performance, decay most organic compounds, and promote the formation of insoluble inorganic compounds, which either adhere to the bubble or separate as a sediment. Hence, the multi-faceted role of the OzoFractionation® process.
Why does OzoFractionation® work so well for PFAS?
The engineering that formulated OzoFractionation® specifically targets the unique chemistry of PFAS. The process uses flexible gas mixtures: air-ozone, oxygen-ozone, or atmospheric air, tailored to a site’s specific contaminant profile and operational constraints. The ability to add ozone offers three major benefits for PFAS and broad contaminant removal:
- Smaller, more stable bubbles: Ozone in the gas stream, with its chemical properties, produces finer bubbles that resist merging. This provides a considerable total gas-liquid surface area that is maintained throughout the water column, not reducing with coalescence, allowing PFAS and other contaminants to adhere to the bubble and improve extraction rates. The thinner wall of the smaller bubbles also minimises water losses to the foamate, with Ozofractionation® producing up to 75% less foamate than air foam fractionation processes.
- Greater selectivity, less waste: Because ozone-enhanced bubbles are smaller and more stable, even challenging short-chain PFAS compounds, which often pass through traditional processes, are more effectively captured and removed.
- Direct oxidation of co-contaminants: Ozone, as a powerful oxidising agent, can break down organic pollutants, degrade pesticides, and kill viruses and pathogens. For many non-PFAS contaminants that are hard to remove by physical methods, OzoFractionation® provides parallel degradation and removal pathways in a single step, ideal for complex source waters where traditional GAC and IX systems struggle with fouling and breakthrough.
Versatility, synergy, and downstream integration
Not only does OzoFractionation® offer impressive volume reduction and contaminant concentration, but it also provides the perfect feedstock for destruction technologies. By concentrating PFAS into a foamate that is typically just a fraction of a percent of the original volume, downstream treatment such as electro-oxidation, supercritical water oxidation, and other advanced destruction processes can be installed with a much smaller physical footprint and greatly reduced power requirements.
Global reach and strategic partnerships
EVOCRA’s expertise and innovation haven’t gone unnoticed internationally. In North America, EVOCRA maintains an exclusive licensing agreement with E2METRIX, part of the OVIVO family of companies, granting their clients access to the OzoFractionation® process, branded as Olift™. This partnership ensures that US and Canadian customers benefit from a technology already battle-tested in some of Australia’s harshest conditions, supported by local experts.
In the United Kingdom, Europe, and South America, EVOCRA has entered a limited licensing and collaboration framework with Arcadis, leveraging their global network for client appraisals and supply chain scale-up. These relationships ensure that the OzoFractionation® technology continues to evolve and adapt, with feedback and validation from some of the world’s largest and most complex remediation projects.
OzoFractionation®: A smarter path to PFAS compliance
- Multi-mechanistic, single-process design means less infrastructure, less downtime, and simplified operations.
- Adaptability to diverse water matrices; the ability to treat high organic loads and variable co-contaminants, provides an ability to future-proof against evolving water and wastewater challenges faced by industrial and municipal clients alike.
- Minimised secondary wastes and lower energy requirements reduce long-term OpEx and environmental impacts, providing economic and reputational benefits.
- Ideal partner for advanced destruction technologies by providing a highly concentrated, predictable PFAS waste stream.
- Internationally validated performance, supported by a decade of data, ensures confidence for regulators, asset managers, and environmental officers.
Confidence for clients, value for communities
EVOCRA and its patented OzoFractionation® technology offer the marketplace a proven, versatile, and forward-looking solution to one of the most difficult environmental problems facing industry, regulators, and communities. With a track record stretching from gold mine proof-of-concept in Tasmania to leading roles at airports, landfills, fire training grounds, and major liquid waste facilities, EVOCRA’s OzoFractionation® provides real PFAS compliance with cost-effectiveness and the opportunity to improve the energy efficiency of PFAS destruction technologies that break the contamination cycle.
For organisations requiring PFAS remediation, OzoFractionation® is the solution that transforms uncertainty into measurable, reportable, and bankable success. EVOCRA is ready to provide a sustainable water treatment solution that meets your requirements.
