The PFAS remediation researcher with a field test on pause

Peter Jaffé has been studying the transport and remediation of pollutants in the environment for 40 years at Princeton University. But now he’s worried about the future of some of his research.

On April 1, the US Department of Defense (DOD), the US Department of Energy, and NASA suspended dozens of grants awarded to Princeton researchers. Jaffe was one of the researchers affected.

The science

Jaffé’s research focuses on how to reduce the levels of different environmental pollutants. In 2016, he started tackling per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Substances in this class of synthetic organic compounds, dubbed “forever chemicals,” are notoriously difficult to destroy and dispose of after they are removed from the environment. But removing PFAS matters because they have been linked to cancer and other illnesses.

To fight back, Jaffé and his colleagues are using microbes. After they found a strain of bacteria in a New Jersey wetland that could break down ammonium, a pollutant in sewage and fertilizer runoff, the researchers decided to put the bacterium, Acidimicrobium A6, to test on PFAS.

The results were exciting: the microbe broke down 60% of two common PFAS compounds—perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS)—in laboratory reactors over 100 days (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b04047). The bacterium flourishes in oxygen-deprived conditions, which makes it especially effective for soil and groundwater remediation and allows it to work without expensive aeration.

The DOD started funding Jaffé’s research a few years ago; over 700 military sites in the US and US territories are contaminated by PFAS. After testing Acidimicrobium A6 extensively in the laboratory, the next step for the Princeton team was to run a field demonstration to prove the bacterium’s real-world functionality.

A 1-year $250,000 DOD grant was to fund that field demonstration. But that, as well as further laboratory experiments, are now on hold after the April 1 pause. “The suspension will impact our PFAS work significantly until it is lifted or I can find alternate funding,” Jaffé says.

Limbo and loss

Jaffé says he was extremely anxious when he read the email telling him he needed to halt the project immediately until further notice. The impact goes beyond the field trial. Jaffé has three PhD students graduating this summer, and he worries about losing their research expertise during the funding limbo. He was also planning to hire one or two postdoctoral fellows soon, and he says that is no longer possible until the funding is reinstated.

Perhaps, Jaffé says, he should try to see his students’ graduation as a blessing in disguise because it reduces payroll burden in the near term. “It does help us get through the next couple of months.”

Not knowing what comes next, and when, is stressful though. Restarting the project after a few months will be hard but manageable, he says. But the impact could be severe if the suspension extends beyond that time frame.

The bacteria that Jaffé’s team works with are finicky and, in nature, are anemic at degrading PFAS. He and his students have finessed cultivation techniques and boosted the microbe’s PFAS-destruction ability. “We figured out how to stimulate it, what we need to have to make it flourish and then degrade PFAS,” he says.

Jaffé’s biggest concern is what he will do if he experiences a longer disruption. “If we’re set back by 6 months, it’s a shame, but it’s not the end of the world. We can restart unless I lose my whole expertise in the lab,” he says. “If I have to let a lot of people go and then start from scratch with people who don’t have the expertise to cultivate this organism, to measure its activity, et cetera, that will be hard.”

And then there’s potentially irreparable damage to the science of PFAS remediation if the DOD decides to terminate the grant. Researchers are looking at various technologies such as plasma, ultravioletlight combined with photocatalysts, and sonolysis to destroy PFAS. But bioremediation with the anaerobic A6 strain offers a simpler route, he says. “If we have to abandon this line of research, it will be a loss given how far we are in this project, how broad a concern PFAS are, and that if, if you can use biology, it’s always the cheapest way to clean up.”