WEES Seminar Fall 2025:
Mitch Olson
Mitch Olson
This presentation includes an overview of PFAS treatment technologies for various media types. For starters, we will provide brief overview of PFAS chemistry and how the complexity of PFAS adds to the treatment challenges. From there, we will look at PFAS conceptual site models and discuss how treatment/remediation needs follow from PFAS in different release scenarios and cleanup objectives. Several treatment technologies can effectively remove some/most PFAS from water streams, but generate a PFAS-concentrated media (liquid or solid) that must be managed or disposed. PFAS destruction to date has primarily occurred via incineration; other destructive technologies are available but are relatively early in the commercial development process. PFAS-impacted media may also be disposed of via landfilling or deep-well injection. The presentation draws off training materials developed by the Interstate Technology Regulatory Council (ITRC) PFAS team.
Dr. Mitchell Olson is a Research Associate Professor at Colorado State University (CSU) and has 25 years of professional experience. He currently serves as director for the Center for Contaminant Hydrology (CCH) lab at CSU, where his research includes industry and government sponsored research addressing challenges of managing sites impacted by historical releases of petroleum hydrocarbons, chlorinated solvents, PFAS, 1,4-dioxane, and other emerging contaminants. Prior to his current role at CSU, Dr. Olson was a Senior Engineer at Trihydro Corporation, where he also served as Emerging Contaminants Director. Dr. Olson received his BS degree in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota Duluth, and MS and PhD degrees in environmental engineering from CSU. Dr. Olson co-leads the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council (ITRC) PFAS Team training group.