How AI can help to remove PFAS from groundwater

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About the research

What if we could remove "forever chemicals" from water, without boiling a single drop? PFAS, the notorious "forever chemicals," can linger in groundwater for centuries, posing a major environmental and health challenge. Traditional methods to remove them are energy-intensive and inefficient, but what if there’s a smarter way?

Physicist Pieter-Jan Piccard (VITO - UHasselt) is using machine learning models to design advanced membranes that filter out PFAS and other harmful molecules without the need for boiling. These membranes act like super-fine filters, offering a cleaner, greener, and more energy-efficient solution for industries worldwide.

From purifying groundwater to making medicines safer, this innovation could improve how we handle separations. Watch the video to see how science and AI are teaming up to tackle one of the toughest pollution problems of our time.

 

Sustainability
Environment
Pieter-Jan Piccard
UHasselt - VITO

The desire to understand and describe the natural world, from atoms to galaxies, inspired Pieter-Jan Piccard to study physics at UHasselt and KU Leuven. A drive to model complex physical systems fuelled an interest in machine learning. Today, the physicist is working on a PhD in sustainable separation technologies, navigating the intersection of machine learning and physics. His research focuses on better understanding and predicting these processes to implement them for applications like removing PFAS from groundwater.
 

Contact Pieter-Jan

https://www.uhasselt.be/nl/wie-is-wie/pieterjan-piccard
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pieter-Jan-Piccard
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pieter-jan-piccard-4276b1235/

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