Minister Tours PFAS Destruction Facility in Policy Debut

A ministerial visit to Puragen’s Immingham facility highlights the UK’s first national plan to tackle persistent PFAS contamination in water supplies

10 Mar 2026

The UK’s effort to address contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) moved from policy discussion to operational focus on February 3, when Emma Hardy, the parliamentary under-secretary of state for water and flooding, visited Puragen’s activated carbon reactivation plant in Immingham.

The visit coincided with the launch of the UK’s first national PFAS Plan by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Officials selected the site to highlight technologies already being used to remove and destroy PFAS from water treatment systems.

Puragen operates what it describes as a “Search, Capture, Destroy” system designed to manage PFAS contamination through the full treatment cycle. The company deploys FiltraPure CH800, a granular activated carbon intended to capture both short- and long-chain PFAS compounds, across water utility sites using mobile filtration units.

Once the filtration media becomes saturated, the spent carbon is transported to the Immingham facility. There it undergoes thermal reactivation, a high-temperature process intended to destroy the PFAS compounds captured during treatment rather than transferring contaminated material to landfill or external incineration. The company says the facility can also process highly contaminated industrial carbon classified on the UK’s amber waste list.

Defra’s PFAS Plan identifies granular activated carbon as a recognised best available technique for removing PFAS from drinking water. However, the policy also acknowledges that conventional disposal routes for used carbon do not always eliminate the underlying contamination, leaving a gap between capture and final destruction.

Puragen’s approach has already been deployed in the water sector. The company recently secured a five-year, multi-site contract with a UK water utility under Drinking Water Inspectorate enforcement requirements, after competing against larger suppliers. The partnership has continued as monitoring requirements and regulatory expectations evolve.

Despite the operational focus, the government’s strategy has drawn criticism from some specialists who note that it lacks binding statutory limits or firm deadlines. Other European countries, including Denmark and France, have already introduced product restrictions ahead of anticipated EU-wide measures.

Research group Bluefield Research estimates that spending on PFAS treatment for drinking water across Europe could reach about €3.6bn between 2026 and 2036, suggesting the scale of investment likely required as regulations tighten.