Scorching Forever Chemicals From the Inside Out

A mobile unit arriving in St. Cloud, Minnesota marks the first on-site supercritical water oxidation deployment for PFAS destruction in the US

29 Apr 2026

A mobile unit designed to permanently destroy PFAS, a group of man-made chemicals linked to health risks and known for their resistance to breakdown, has been deployed at a municipal water facility in St. Cloud, Minnesota, in what marks the first operational use of the technology in the United States.

374Water delivered its AirSCWO system to the city's Nutrient, Energy, and Water Recovery Facility in April 2026. Pilot testing is scheduled to run through mid-September. The project is funded by Minnesota's Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund and conducted in partnership with Barr Engineering and the University of St. Thomas.

Conventional approaches to PFAS management capture and concentrate the chemicals rather than eliminating them. The AirSCWO system works differently, breaking down carbon-fluorine bonds, the chemical links that make PFAS so persistent, using water heated and pressurised beyond its critical point. Fixed deployments of the technology have shown destruction rates above 99.95%. The mobile version brings that capability directly to contaminated sites, removing the need to transport hazardous waste across state lines.

At St. Cloud, the unit will treat municipal biosolids and spent granular activated carbon, a filtering material commonly used in water treatment, to assess how the system performs across different materials under real operating conditions. Results are expected to guide wider adoption across the country, where PFAS contamination affects hundreds of sites ranging from military bases to municipal water systems.

Minnesota has taken an active role in addressing PFAS, shaped by years of industrial contamination that affected drinking water in the Twin Cities area. State funding for this pilot reflects an effort to advance destruction-based solutions toward commercial readiness.

374Water is also pursuing fixed-site agreements, including a licensed facility in Orlando and a supply order from a Kansas municipality. The mobile deployment represents a separate strategic line, aimed at communities where permanent on-site infrastructure is not practical. Whether the St. Cloud results support broader rollout remains to be seen.