FASTER SOLUTIONS
FOR FOREVER CHEMICALS.
PFACTS is a resource for anyone seeking to replace, redesign, or remediate “forever chemicals.”
Per- and poly-fluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) are used in everything from non-stick coatings to compostable food containers to semiconductor manufacturing. Given their environmental persistence and impact on human health, there is an urgent need to take collective action.
PFACTS is a 3-year project to create a central clearinghouse for data, tools, and community knowledge. The collaboration has three objectives:
to simplify the identification of PFAS chemicals and materials;
to speed up the discovery of safer PFAS alternatives with the help of generative AI; and
to recommend methods for capturing PFAS from industrial applications until viable replacements can be found.
PFACTS is funded by a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation’s Technology and Innovation (TIP) Directorate through its Convergence Accelerator program, which supports projects that address societal challenges through convergent research.
“The release of pfasID is a critical milestone for PFACTS as we work together to address PFAS identification and management,”
Jed Pitera, Strategy Co-lead, Sustainable Materials, IBM Research
The PFACTS team brings together academic researchers, industry partners, and nonprofit organizations to build a simple, easy-to-use application to recognize PFAS in supply chains, explore or develop alternatives, and identify capture technologies. Partners include:
who
The project will leverage ChemFORWARD’s industry collaborations, chemical hazard data trust, and guide suppliers to eventually verify their PFAS-free solutions through a third-party process such as ChemFORWARD’s SAFER™ designation for raw materials – with the goal of accelerating the availability of verified safer solutions.
CHEMFORWARD
Prof. Damian E. Helbling brings expertise in studying exposure and transformation pathways in the environment, non-target analysis of PFAS contaminants, and liquid-phase PFAS capture materials. The Cornell team will work to improve and converge industrial and environmental chemical reaction prediction models, driving of liquid-phase capture material selection.
CORNELL
This organization specializes in the ingestion, annotation, classification, and semantic search of chemistry and other data from scientific literature. They will provide access to relevant PFAS-specific ontologies and annotations, chemical reaction mining, and data pipelines.
DIGITAL SCIENCE
IBM is leading the project and contributing its expertise in AI, data science, and cloud computing. They are developing the web-based platform and AI-powered tools for PFAS identification and alternative discovery.
IBM
Ash Wright, Ph.D. specializes in inorganic chemistry and porous materials design. The Numat team will build simulation workflows to successfully model vapor phase PFAS binding/capture in realistic semiconductor process gas streams.
NUMAT
Prof. Carla A. Ng brings expertise in the development of toxicokinetic models, predicting protein-contaminant interactions, and in vitro and in vivo testing of PFAS biological impacts. The Pitt team will assess and improve applicability of toxicity simulation methods to PFAS, designing chemical hazard assessment framework.
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
These collaborators provide guidance, feedback, and expertise on the development of tools and data resources for PFACTS. Collaborators include: Apple, Google, HP, SONOS, Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), SEMI (Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International), and the Association for the Advancement of Alternatives Assessment (A4).
COLLABORATORS
Rooted in User Centered Design
The ChemFORWARD Electronics Safer Chemistry Collaborative with representatives from ten leading consumer electronics brands including Apple, Google, IBM, HP, Amazon, Intel, Microsoft, and Actnano, engaged in a co-design process to identify the key features and functionality of pfasID. Key success factors included:
Centralized: a tool that could be used by policy makers and industry alike thereby promoting consistency and continual improvement
Simple: Intuitive to any level of user, especially non-technical; and
Free: Remove friction to adopt and use
Flexible: Include multiple definitions of PFAS
Adaptable: Evolves with science and regulation
Try it out for yourself!
ChemFORWARD hosts, manages, and maintains pfasID.
ChemFORWARD is a science-based, non-profit organization turning chemical hazard data into positive impact.
By creating broad access to chemical hazard data and illuminating safer alternatives,in partnership with industry, we are ending toxic chemical exposure and advancing human and environmental equity with safer chemistry