374Water Inc (NASDAQ:SCWO) announced it has completed a commercial-scale field demonstration at Clean Earth’s Detroit, Michigan facility as part of a Department of Defense (DoD) project focused on destroying per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)-contaminated wastes.
The project is part of a DoD initiative led by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) in collaboration with the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program to evaluate commercial-scale technology solutions for PFAS destruction.
The DIU seeks to accelerate the adoption of commercial technology to address operational challenges, and this program was designed to demonstrate and promote cost-effective, full destruction of PFAS-containing wastes.
From July through September 2025, 374Water conducted a six-week series of one-day trials using its AirSCWO 6 System at Clean Earth’s facility in Detroit.
The company processed six types of concentrated PFAS-impacted wastes, including Surface Active Foam Fractionation, foamate, a Cyclodextrin-based media regenerant distillate, ion exchange regenerant still bottoms, Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF), spent granular activated carbon, and spent ion exchange resin. A mixed batch of AFFF, foamate, and Cyclodextrin regenerant distillate was also treated.
In total, approximately 900 gallons of PFAS-laden feedstocks were processed over 80 hours of runtime. Sampling of stack gas emissions and liquid effluent is underway to analyze PFAS and non-PFAS parameters.
Arcadis, the project’s prime engineering contractor, is assessing performance objectives, including destruction removal efficiencies, fluorine mass balance, and cost model.
A final report detailing the results is expected to be publicly released by the first quarter of 2026.
Stephen Jones, 374Water’s interim president, said the deployment demonstrated the effectiveness, scalability and versatility of the company’s AirSCWO technology.
He described it as a “major step forward” in 374Water’s efforts to provide the DoD with commercial PFAS treatment options for a variety of scenarios and waste types.
“The project served to further validate our technology for a range of most common PFAS-containing wastes, providing comprehensive emissions and liquid sampling and operational and economic data to support a centralized ‘hub’ deployment model for the DoD,” Jones said.
“In fact, we were able to complete the demonstration of the planned six waste streams ahead of schedule, providing the opportunity to add a mixed waste stream for processing.”