Eurofins Environment Testing Knoxville Receives 2020 Catalyst for Better Award

In October 2020, the Eurofins Environment Testing laboratory in Knoxville, Tennessee, was awarded the "2020 Catalyst for Better" recognition from The Chemours Company, for accomplishments in "excellent PFAS technical innovation." Our Knoxville team has performed source air development work with help from chemists at the Chemours Fayetteville Works manufacturing site that elicited significant technical and financial benefits for Chemours. Dr. Lam Leung is a Chemours Technical Fellow located at the Chemours Wilmington, Delaware headquarters who presented the award.

"The stakes for performance of air emissions measurements continue to be high at the Chemours facility, and our PFAS source air work is an integral part contributing to those measurements," says Robert Mitzel, President of Eurofins Specialty Services. This recognition will be distributed to all members of the laboratory services team who worked on the project.

The U.S. has grown increasingly concerned with air emissions from facilities where PFAS are part of the manufacturing processes, or where air emissions are derived from the treatment facilities of PFAS waste. In January of 2021, the USEPA published OTM (Other Test Method) 45 for the collection and analysis of PFAS in source air emissions. The EPA PFAS sampling and analysis method is based on the developed methodology being applied at the Chemours facilities.

Over the past few years, Eurofins has been conducting source air method development in support of consent orders, research studies and government initiatives. The developed source air methods are built on EPA standards for determining semivolatile and volatile compounds in air, but modified to support the complexities unique to PFAS chemicals. The development process has highlighted the unique chemical characteristics of this class of compounds, and how they behave under different source testing conditions. The Eurofins air testing laboratories have acquired a thorough understanding of these complexities, and how to manage them to produce defensible and reliable results for our clients