Category: Water Technology Innovation

Colleges and companies collaborate to study PFAS soil purification methods at Schriever SFB 11/1/2023

Colleges and companies collaborate to study PFAS soil purification methods at Schriever SFB

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins contributes to this article about how a team of scientists at the Colorado School of Mines alongside other major universities will be testing out soil purification technologies at Schriever Space Force Base.  It’s an international effort to defeat what is commonly known as “Forever Chemicals.”  The three universities and five companies, both foreign and domestic, are testing technologies to get these chemicals out of soils. The work is funded by the Department of Defense.  November 1, 2023.

Are PFAS really ‘forever chemicals’? It’s complicated. Here’s what to know 10/19/2023

Are PFAS really ‘forever chemicals’? It’s complicated. Here’s what to know

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Christopher Higgins contributed to this article about how for the past five years, public awareness around PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” has been growing in the U.S.  A growing body of evidence has shown that long-term exposure, even to low traces of these chemicals, can cause severe health issues that include cancer, developmental effects and reproductive disorders.  October 19, 2023.

TAKING THE FIGHT TO FOREVER CHEMICALS 10/16/2023

TAKING THE FIGHT TO FOREVER CHEMICALS

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins is featured in an article about how Mines launched a broad-based research initiative earlier this year to advance scientific understanding of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFASs, and develop practical engineering solutions to address these so-called “forever chemicals,” one of the largest-scale environmental and public health challenges facing the U.S. today. October 16, 2023

Contemporary ice sheet thinning drives subglacial groundwater exfiltration with potential feedbacks on glacier flow 8/18/2023

Contemporary ice sheet thinning drives subglacial groundwater exfiltration with potential feedbacks on glacier flow

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Matthew Siegfried and Alexander A. Robel, Shi J. Sim, Colin Meyer, and Mines alum Chloe D. Gustafson write about how groundwater-laden sedimentary aquifers are extensive beneath large portions of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. A reduction in the mechanical loading of aquifers is known to lead to groundwater exfiltration, a discharge of groundwater from the aquifer. Here, we provide a simple expression predicting exfiltration rates under a thinning ice sheet.   August 18, 2023. 

GLOBAL ENERGY FUTURE INITIATIVE BRINGS INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS TO THE TABLE 6/9/2023

GLOBAL ENERGY FUTURE INITIATIVE BRINGS INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS TO THE TABLE

Mines Global Energy Future Initiative (GEFI) is creating partnerships to forge solutions for society’s greatest energy challenges. But creating effective partnerships that address many facets of a problem is tricky. Mines has expertise across the gamut of disciplines required to tackle these problems and a new framework for the interdisciplinary research needed to spark innovation and attract external partners. Mines has put together a powerhouse list of energy-related experts and our connections to industry and other partners to build a structure for unprecedented collaboration.  June 9, 2023.  

Colorado School of Mines launches interdisciplinary research initiative to tackle “forever chemicals” 5/18/2023

Colorado School of Mines launches interdisciplinary research initiative to tackle “forever chemicals”

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Christopher Higgins, Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will be the lead investigator of the new initiative. PFAS@Mines will focus on development of treatment strategies for most challenging PFAS sites, improved methods to characterize human exposure.  May 18, 2023.

Colorado School of Mines partners with Aquagga to commercialize PFAS destruction technology 4/11/2023

Colorado School of Mines partners with Aquagga to commercialize PFAS destruction technology

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins is featured in this article about how Mines researchers developed HALT-PFAS.  This promising technology for the destruction of so-called “forever chemicals” developed by Colorado School of Mines researchers has been licensed by a cleantech startup that aims to use the Mines-patented process to halt the growing environmental and public health challenge posed by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.  April 11, 2023. 

Mines researchers aim to improve understanding of water’s role in climate change 3/17/2023

Mines researchers aim to improve understanding of water’s role in climate change

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Adrienne Marshall is featured in this article about how as emissions change snowpack melt, hydropower generation could fail in the near future.  Marshall’s research, which is supported by a National Science Foundation IGERT grant and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, focuses on understanding how climate change impacts snow hydrology, such as how snow drifts change and how precipitation intensity mitigates or exacerbates the effects of warming on winter snowmelt.  March 17, 2023. 

Colorado will start putting one of country’s most comprehensive PFAS laws into effect next year 3/15/2023

Colorado will start putting one of country’s most comprehensive PFAS laws into effect next year

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins contributes to this article about how for the first time, the Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday produced limits on PFAS known as “forever chemicals” in drinking water. It provides guidance for water systems trying to figure out to what level it should limit the presence of the chemicals, which have been connected to serious illnesses including cancer. It will likely mean the addition of costly filtering for many water providers.  March 15, 2023.