Technical cleaning of PFOA/PFDA contaminated foam concentrate systems
Natusch & Thiedemann specialises in the technical cleaning of tank installations and pipework. Due to the very specific limit value, this can best be described as "laboratory cleaning".
Natusch & Thiedemann are specialised in the technical cleaning of PFOA / PFDA contaminated foam agent tank systems and raw pipelines. The term "technical cleaning" is not necessarily familiar to many people. However, based on the very specific threshold value, this term would have to be replaced by "laboratory cleaning". This is because the aim of cleaning is not only to clean the system, but to make it limit value-free. This means reducing the plant load from 500 or 1200 ug PFOA to less than 10 ug. It is easy to imagine that this is not an easy task from a technical point of view. 30ug per 1 litre of water cannot be detected by the human senses. Neither the sense of smell nor the sense of sight can detect an increased value. Taste, perhaps, but you should not try this with PFOA, because even small amounts of PFOA in the blood accumulate in the body over many years and can cause considerable damage. As a master company for silo cleaning and tank access technology, we have been on the market for over 10 years and can proudly present an extensive customer reference list.
What are PFOA?
Substances in this group are exceptionally resistant to chemical and biological degradation and are therefore long-lived, so-called fluoroorganic compounds, carbon compounds in which the individual carbon atoms of a chain are either completely or partially surrounded by fluorine. The general group of substances is often referred to as PFAS2 - in German per- and polyfluorinated hydrocarbons. Some representatives of the PFAS have now been identified as harmful to humans, which has led to regulatory measures by the authorities. REACH as a basis On the basis of REACH3 , any member of the European Union can propose substances considered hazardous for regulation. Within the framework of an RMOA4 it is determined whether there is a need for regulation at all due to the hazards to humans and the environment arising from the use of a substance and, if so, what type of regulation this should be. The instruments available under REACH for regulation range from restrictions on the manufacture or use of individual substances or entire groups of substances, to the requirement to obtain a permit for manufacture or use, to a ban. So far, two substances have been classified as lead substances of a substance group as requiring regulation and have been regulated by the legislator:
PFOS was the first substance from the PFAS series to be regulated by law in Europe: In December 2006, the EU Commission adopted Directive (EC) 2006/122 (supplement to Directive (EC) 76/769) which bans the production and use of PFOS and its precursors6 in the EU and sets the limit value for it in articles at 50ppm (=mg/kg).
