LANXESS Goes After Ultra-Short-Chain PFAS

A German chemicals firm bets that ion exchange resins can do what activated carbon cannot: catch the smallest forever chemicals

29 Apr 2026

Activated carbon has long been the water industry's workhorse. It is cheap, well understood, and widely deployed. It is also, in many cases, inadequate. The shortest members of the PFAS family, so-called ultra-short-chain compounds such as trifluoroacetate (TFA), slip through carbon filters with ease. They are chemically stable, mobile in water, and largely invisible to the treatment plants serving millions of European households.

Against this backdrop, LANXESS, a German speciality chemicals group, is preparing to make its case at IFAT 2026 in Munich, the world's leading environmental technology trade fair, which runs from May 4 to 7. The company will present its Lewatit resin technology as a more selective alternative, one capable of binding PFAS molecules through electrostatic attraction and hydrophobic interaction rather than the looser physical trapping that carbon media relies upon.

The pitch is backed by field data. At a facility run by Chemours Netherlands in Dordrecht, LANXESS's Lewatit MDS TP 108 resin has demonstrated measurable removal of TFA from industrial wastewater. The company has also released Lewatit TP 108 DW, a version approved for drinking water contact under EU standards.

The regulatory context matters. EU limits on PFAS in drinking water became enforceable in January 2026, forcing procurement decisions across the continent. Analysts forecast that European utilities will spend up to 3.6 billion euros on PFAS treatment by 2036. Activated carbon is expected to lead early procurement. But as regulators extend their lists of covered compounds and detection thresholds tighten, a second wave of investment in higher-selectivity technologies is widely anticipated.

To ease adoption, LANXESS has released a free planning tool, the LewaPlus Basic Design Module. It allows engineers to configure PFAS removal systems without specialist consultants.

Resin is not cheap, and carbon's entrenched position in the market will not yield easily. But for utilities facing compounds that current infrastructure cannot reliably capture, the question may soon be not whether to invest in more selective treatment, but when.