Emily Pulcher

Staff Chemical Engineer
Burns & McDonnell

Emily is a staff chemical engineer for Burns & McDonnell. Emily has experience in both the remediation and compliance technical service areas. Her compliance experience includes air emission inventories & permitting, NPDES reporting & permitting, multi-media environmental compliance auditing and on-site client support. Her remediation experience includes groundwater extraction system design, hydraulic modeling, controls programming, ongoing monitoring, regulatory reporting, and alternatives evaluations. Emily also serves as a technical lead on per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) projects for the remediation group.

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Using a Process-Based Approach to Evaluate Potential Sources and Fate of Per- and Poly-Fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)

A visual basic for applications (VBA) script was developed to screen safety data sheets (SDSs) against the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) PFAS database to identify potential PFAS-containing products in order to evaluate potential points of PFAS introduction throughout process operations. For one manufacturing facility, this screening tool was able to evaluate over 10,000 ingredients to narrow them down to a list of just 66 products flagged as potential PFAS containing materials. Coupling this information with a process analysis consisting of process flow diagrams and waste stream mapping, a preliminary understanding of PFAS fate throughout process operations can be developed. This process-based approach to tracing PFAS throughout manufacturing processes can help inform further investigation activities, product substitutions, and waste stream management to mitigate risk associated with PFAS handling.