Water-cleaning bacteria can produce health, economic benefits | ASU NewsBruce Rittmann has made a big name for himself by thinking small — qui...
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network
Bruce Rittmann has made a big name for himself by thinking small — quite literally.
At ASU, he and his research group have teamed up with some of the tiniest creatures on Earth to tackle the colossal challenge of cleaning up our water supply.
Rittmann leads the Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology in ASU’s Biodesign Institute. For more than 20 years at ASU, Rittmann has been creating and refining a technology that uses microbes like bacteria to remove harmful substances from water. The technology is called membrane biofilm reactor, or MBfR.
A leading wastewater innovator
Bruce Rittmann’s groundbreaking work in environmental biotechnology also earned him the prestigious Stockholm Water Prize. This award is sometimes referred to as the Nobel Prize for water.
The International Water Association recently recognized Rittmann’s pioneering work, presenting him with the Ardern-Lockett Award at the 2025 Microbial Ecology and Water Engineering Conference.
“Understanding and managing microbial communities — that’s called microbial ecology — is my life. The award is a recognition of exactly what I do, so it’s perfect,” says Rittmann, who is also a Regents Professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at ASU.
The award is named after chemist Edward Ardern and his wastewater treatment plant coworker William Lockett. In the early 1900s, Ardern and Lockett discovered the bacteria-based wastewater treatment process called activated sludge that is the foundation of today’s methods for treating wastewater.
More than 100 years later, scientists are still finding ways to work with tiny organisms to solve water challenges. Rittmann is also finding ways to use bacteria to realize health and economic benefits for society.
Removing the 'forever' from 'forever chemicals'
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of thousands of chemicals used to make things nonstick, grease resistant, waterproof and heat resistant. The properties that make them useful for many everyday products also make them so durable they don’t break down on their own. That is why they are called “forever chemicals.”
Forever chemicals are now found in the environment, food, water and even in people’s blood. PFAS exposure has been linked to health problems including increased cancer risks, reduced ability to fight infections, reproductive and child developmental effects, obesity and more.
Current methods for PFAS removal separate PFAS molecules from water. That causes a new problem: What to do with the collected PFAS? Destroying the chemicals often requires extreme, expensive measures.
PFAS molecules are hard to break down because they have a long chain of carbon atoms connected by very strong bonds to the element fluorine. Rittmann’s powerful little partners can’t break down fluorine bonds on their own, so he found a way to help them.
His team developed the membrane catalyst-film reactor, or MCfR, to support the bacteria in the MBfR. The MCfR uses a metal called palladium to break the fluorine bonds in the chain. This step allows the microbes to finish the job of turning harmful PFAS into its harmless components.
Rittmann says the combined MBfR and MCfR system works on the top six PFAS chemicals targeted by the EPA in drinking water. It can also work on others that are of concern to environmental and human health.
Attached link
https://news.asu.edu/20250606-environment-and-sustainability-watercleaning-bacteria-can-produce-health-economic-benefitsTaxonomy
- Ecology
- Biotechnology
- Environment
- waste water bacteria
- PFAS
- Water, Waste Water Chemical & Treatment