A remark by a first-year student about a space researcher’s lack of real-world impact has led to a project which is developing a groundbreaking device capable of degrading a carcinogenic form of “forever chemicals” known as PFAS in water in just six minutes.

The project began unexpectedly when PhD researcher Josef Richmond, from ANU’s Space Plasma, Power and Propulsion Laboratory (SP3), set out to replicate how fine, potentially toxic, and electrostatically charged dust behaves on the Moon, Mars and asteroids.

“In order to replicate these extreme space environments in the lab, I needed to build a radiation source to replicate the high-energy, low-wavelength portion of the Solar radiation that is constantly bombarding these bodies in outer space.” Mr Richmond said.

The scientist couldn’t find anything suitable on the market, so over the next three years, the PhD student created the radiation source.

“Most of these radiation sources are based on plasmas, which are these hot ionized gases, and I happen to be in a plasma physics group,” he said.

Video: ANU PhD student Josef Richmond successfully replicated how fine, electrostatically charged, and potentially toxic dust behaves on the Moon, Mars and asteroids with collaborators at the University of Colorado Boulder. Credit: Josef Richmond

Later, while he was teaching a first-year physics lab course, a student asked about his research.

“She said something to the effect of, ‘that's cool, but all the space stuff is self-indulgent, and I don't think it's going to help any people here on Earth’,” he said.

“Now that's a very blatant thing to say, but to be honest, there is some element of truth to that comment.”

The comment led the Rural Fire Service volunteer to studies about using low-wavelength deep ultraviolet light to destroy PFAS – which are used in firefighting foams – via photolysis.

“But the UV sources (used in these studies) were very inefficient, limiting the effectiveness of the treatment process. After some investigation, it turns out that the radiation source we had developed was significantly more efficient.”

*PFAS is commonly used in firefighting foams. Credit: AdobeStock*

PFAS— used in firefighting foam, products such as non-stick pans, and by many industries —repel oil, grease and water, but persist in the environment, resist breakdown, and are typically only filtered and stored, risking recontamination.

The NSSN Grand Challenge Fund project centres on the new technology which uses a green hydrogen-fuelled plasma to generate vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) radiation.

This low-wavelength radiation triggers photolysis, breaking the strong carbon-fluorine bonds in PFAS and converting them into harmless byproducts like fluoride and carbon compounds—without producing secondary pollutants.

“This technology has the potential to treat large volumes of water simultaneously, much faster than current alternatives, and is another great application of low-pressure plasmas,” Project Co-Investigator and Head of the ANU Space Plasma, Power and Propulsion Group (SP3), Professor Christine Charles says.

“Using this technology, it could take six minutes to treat the same amount of water a conventional radiation source could treat in 10 hours.”

ANU is building a prototype water-treatment reactor to test the method, which is also highly power-efficient – up to 30 times more efficient than traditional methods.

Researchers say it is also scalable, making it a practical solution for large-scale environmental clean-up and waste-water treatment.

The reactor used in the project will feature an integrated in-situ sensing unit designed by University of Sydney researchers, which will monitor the PFAS degradation in real time during treatment.

*ANU PhD researcher Josef Richmond in the SP3 Laboratory at ANU with the prototype low-wavelength radiation source that will be used to degrade PFAS in water. Credit: Jamie Kidston, ANU*

“Along with hydrogen storage start-up SolidHydrogen, I will contribute the most compact and safest storage method of green hydrogen in the market to uniquely provide the concentrated power needed to produce the plasma necessary for the process being proposed,” Project Co-Investigator and MERLin (Materials Energy Research Laboratory in nanoscale) Lead, Prof. Francois Aguey-Zinsou says.

Four other industry partners are involved in the project, including agricultural innovator Happy Soils.

“Water is more than a necessity—it is the sustaining force behind agriculture and the cornerstone of resilient communities,” Head of Education at the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW, Duncan Kendall says.

“This pioneering PFAS degradation technology marks a transformative step in protecting that vital resource, turning a frontier innovation into a powerful tool for environmental restoration.”

“With extensive knowledge of the international water treatment market, PEGRAS has joined this research initiative to identify a low-energy solution for reducing PFAS, an innovation we aim to integrate into our Micro Particle Removal (MPR) system,” Managing Consultant at technical consultancy PEGRAS, Dr Stephanus Peters says.

(From left to right): Project Co-Investigator Prof Christine Charles from ANU; Project Co-Investigator Prof Francois Aguey-Zinsou from University of Sydney; Dr Tomonori Hu from NSW Smart Sensing Network.

“Great ideas and innovations grow in a fertile and inquisitive environment,” says Professor Rod Boswell, CEO of Boswell Technologies —a company developing survival systems for remote or hostile environments. “Obtaining pure water from a physics experiment irradiating moon dust with plasma: Ex stellas aquam (water from the stars).” 

*Close-up of the prototype low-wavelength radiation source that will be used to degrade PFAS in water. Credit: Jamie Kidston, ANU*

“This is an exemplary project that had its origins in deep exploratory science and has managed to find a use for a current societal issue,” NSSN Environment & Agriculture Theme Lead Dr Tomonori Hu says. “The connection between space research to water quality is fascinating – I’m really looking forward to working with the team moving forward.”

ANU’s Prof. Charles says the SP3 group brings decades of expertise in both fundamental and applied plasma physics.

“With a strong track record in developing scalable inductive radiofrequency plasma sources and related subsystems, the group has contributed to advances in space propulsion, microelectronics, optoelectronics, materials engineering, and hydrogen fuel cells—and is now exploring their potential for treating PFAS-contaminated water.”

The project comes after elevated levels of concentrations of PFAS were detected in a Blue Mountains drinking water catchment last year.

Initial findings released by WaterNSW in May revealed unexpected culprits: firefighting foam used during two historical petrol tanker fires, including one dating back to 1992, and a local Rural Fire Brigade station.

“My original research was fairly esoteric, but now it’s turned out to have a potential application in cleaning up the environment,” Mr Richmond says.

“So, in the end, this is another example of how space research can help people down here on Earth.”

The space-inspired breakthrough tackling ‘forever chemicals’ in water