WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the federal government unveils major new actions and funding priorities around the permanent elimination of “forever chemicals,” Claros Technologies has taken center stage in the national strategy. This week, Claros CEO Michelle Bellanca joined EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for an exclusive federal roundtable, cementing Claros’ position as a vanguard in the future of PFAS management and remediation.
The high-level discussion made one message from Washington overwhelmingly clear: the future of environmental protection and public health cannot rely on merely capturing and moving PFAS waste. Instead, federal priorities are shifting directly toward the type of permanent closed-loop destruction pioneered by ClarosTechUV™. Highlighting this urgent need for true destruction, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin emphasized:
“We are accelerating the development of technologies to destroy PFAS — not just move it from one place to another — to keep pace with this fast-moving field.”
Underscoring the rapid validation of these emerging solutions, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. added:
“One of the really exciting things that’s happened since administrator Zeldin and I came in 16 months ago, there’s been an explosion in technology for removing PFAS and destroying it that will make it much more affordable…”
Moving Beyond “Capture and Transfer”
With momentum shifting rapidly in Washington, one message has become increasingly clear: the future of PFAS remediation cannot rely on capture technologies alone. For years, much of the PFAS treatment landscape has centered around technologies such as granular activated carbon, ion exchange, and membrane systems. These technologies play an important role in concentrating and isolating PFAS from water streams.
But capture alone does not eliminate the compounds. In many cases, it simply transfers PFAS into concentrated waste streams that still require long-term management, transportation, storage, or destruction.
As Bellanca noted during the panel discussion:
“What we’ve done to date is that we’ve had temporary solutions, but that’s really moving the liability from the water to waste… We haven’t had solutions like we’re talking about on the stage today with emerging technologies until the last couple of years.”
This shift is accelerating as Claros’ destruction technology is in commercial deployment.
From Laboratory Concept to Commercial Deployment
Many PFAS compounds remain deeply embedded in critical industries, including semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, electronics, medical devices, and advanced manufacturing. As a result, industry leaders are increasingly focused on solutions that combine accurate analysis, concentration technologies, and commercially deployable destruction systems capable of operating under real-world conditions.
The ClarosTechUV™ system has already demonstrated ≥99.99% destruction of target PFAS species in industrial and complex wastewater in commercial operations.
This commercial readiness is backed by two recent, major operational milestones:
- Industrial Validation: Claros successfully completed a large-scale commercial optimization run at Daikin America’s Alabama facility, treating over 170,000 gallons of industrial process water and achieving 99.99% destruction across all targeted long, short, and ultra-short chain PFAS species at high flow rates.
- Groundwater Remediation: In a major study involving a highly complex, low-transparency water matrix from a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) site in Lake Elmo, the ClarosTechUV™ system achieved ≥99.99% commercial-scale destruction of targeted PFOS and PFOA in filtered concentrate in just four hours.
During the panel, Bellanca emphasized the importance of evaluating these PFAS solutions through a long-term operational and economic lens:
“If you can economically destroy the long, the short, and the ultra-short compounds, that changes the return-on-investment equation from a long-term standpoint.”
The company’s approach is engineered to complement existing treatment infrastructure while helping organizations completely move past legacy waste-transfer strategies.
Watch the entire EPA roundtable discussion here >
Learn more about the ClarosTechUV™ PFAS destruction system, or contact our team to discuss your deployment needs.
About the Roundtable
The federal roundtable discussion was moderated by EPA Assistant Administrator Jessica Kramer and included remarks from EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Claros CEO Michelle Bellanca was joined on the panel by industry leaders Frank Cassou (CEO of Cyclopure), Dave Ross (EVP of Veolia North America), Mathias Meersseman (CEO at DESOTEC U.S.), and Barry Shadrix (Global Director, CETCO) as federal agencies, utilities, manufacturers, and technology providers continue debating the future of PFAS regulation, treatment, and long-term management.