For years, detecting PFAS contaminants in water and soil samples has been a painfully slow process. Samples need to be shipped to third-party labs, where testers wait weeks or even months for results. But a new innovation from FredSense promises to change the game.

FredSense has developed a small, mobile kit that can be deployed almost anywhere to provide real-time information on PFAS concentration. This is the first-ever in-field testing solution for PFAS, and it has the potential to be a game-changer. FredSense CEO David Lloyd recently spoke with RemTEC and Emerging Contaminants Summit's Remediation Technology newsletter for a video interview, where he shared his vision for the technology.

"We want to live in a world where PFAS analytics isn't a weeks or months problem, it's an hours problem," Lloyd said. "With the FredSense system, we believe that solution is here today."

Unlike current methods that only measure around 40 PFAS contaminants, FredSense's technology gives a comprehensive picture of the many different types of PFAS present at a site. Testing takes just three hours, and that time is set to decrease even further. The real-world implications are staggering.

In a recent deployment at a West Coast airport, FredSense technology sped up the replacement of firefighting foams that contain PFAS. Consultants used the real-time PFAS data to optimize the cleaning process, saving time and potentially lowering costs for each replacement. The technology de-risked the entire event, giving the airport confidence that their assets were truly clean.

"With FredSense, it gives us real time information to make decisions within the field, saving time on truck replacement, potentially lowering costs of every single change out that needs to happen, and giving a de risking event for the consultant and for the airport to know that their assets are truly clean," Lloyd concluded.