Summary

Senversa trialed an in-well sorption approach using RemBind® and granular activated carbon (GAC) to remediate PFAS-impacted groundwater at a historically fuel-berth site in Port Adelaide, where ship occupancy and space constraints ruled out conventional large-scale in situ remediation.

• The bench trial tested GAC (two granular sizes) and RemBind® (two granular sizes) as sorptive socks placed in groundwater from two wells with differing PFOS concentrations (~400 µg/L and ~4,000 µg/L), sampled at intervals from 2 hours to 14 days.
• After 14 days, GAC achieved 91–98% PFOS removal while RemBind® achieved 99–99.9% removal across both wells, with up to 650 mg/kg of PFAS mass absorbed onto the products.
• A follow-on in-situ field trial installed RemBind®-filled well socks directly in the two wells for 14, 21, and 31 days, showing PFAS accumulation on the product increasing over time and up to 200 mg/kg absorbed, with roughly 70% reduction in the Well B water column over the monitoring period.
• QA/QC checks quantified secondary adsorption losses onto hardware (bucket walls, socks, filter cake), which were minor relative to the PFAS mass captured by the products themselves.
• The team concluded sorptive products are an effective PFAS removal method for groundwater, and may be a viable remediation option for sites with high PFAS concentrations where large-scale in situ remediation isn’t practical, or where site access is limited.
• Next steps include continuing the 225 mm well installation program at the site to support larger-scale groundwater removal alongside the in-well sorption approach.