This is Climate Tech Distillery, a newsletter where I talk about one specific climate tech company every week.
Subscribe for free to receive my weekly articles in your inbox.
Today we’ll distill a company that’s completely eliminating PFAS (forever chemicals) from wastewater: Oxyle 🇨🇭
This issue is sponsored by:
With the launch of the new B Corp standards earlier this year, they created a 100% on-demand training (+30h of content) so you can learn how to apply them in your company’s daily work and achieve an impact business model.
As a reader of this newsletter, you get an exclusive 25% discount using the code: THECLIMATECOO25(offer expires Dec. 19th). Join 300+ professionals who have already enrolled.
Want to sponsor Climate Tech Distillery? Here’s all the info.
What Problem Does Oxyle Tackle❓
They tackle the problem of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances 🤓) contamination in water, commonly known as “forever chemicals”.
1. Widespread Contamination: PFAS are everywhere! Non-stick cookware, cosmetics, fire-fighting foams, food packaging, textiles, electronics, etc.
2. Forever Toxic:They’re incredibly durable and do not degrade naturally. Over 90% of the population carries traces of these toxins, which are linked to cancer and hormonal disruption.
3. Ineffective Solutions: Current standard solutions don’t destroy pollutants; they filter them out. This transfers the problem from the water to the filter, creating a highly toxic concentrate that requires expensive and hazardous incineration.
High PFAS contamination sites
4. Energy Intensity: Traditional destruction methods (like incineration) require extreme temperatures and lots of energy to break the strong chemical bonds of PFAS, making them carbon-intensive and economically unviable for large-scale use.
5. Treatment complexity: Different water sources have varying PFAS concentrations, water flow rates, and co-contaminants, making uniform treatment solutions impossible. Plus, short and ultra-short chain PFAS compounds are particularly stubborn and difficult to remove.
Product / Service 📦
Oxyle builds on-site modular reactors that permanently destroy “forever chemicals” in wastewater.
Process: Their patented nanocatalysts are activated by simple mechanical energy, like bubbles or vibrations, rather than energy-intensive heat. This triggers a reaction that chemically shreds pollutants, instantly converting all “forever chemicals” into harmless water, CO2, and mineral salts. Zero secondary waste.
Customizable and Versatile: They design solutions specific for each client’s wastewater, solving for a wide range of contaminant concentrations and water types. It works for industrial waste water, surface and groundwater, and even soil remediation.
Permanent Destruction: They break the toughest chemical bonds, removing >99% of PFAS to below detection limits. This includes the hard-to-treat short-chain molecules.
Energy Efficiency: Their process operates at room temperature and pressure, consuming 15x less energy than incineration or other high-heat destruction methods.
Real-Time Monitoring: They offer “OxSignal,” a proprietary analytics tool that provides live data on pollution levels, ensuring instant compliance feedback without waiting weeks for lab results.
Future-Proof Industries: This helps industrial, pharma, and other companies comply with increasingly strict discharge regulations while protecting human health and ecosystems from persistent toxic contamination.
Market 🌐
Remember these chemicals are everywhere and regulations in the EU and US are only going to get stricter.
The cleanup cost for PFAS contamination in Europe alone could reach €1 trillion over the next 20 years. Rising lawsuits and multi-billion-dollar settlements in the U.S. are accelerating adoption of permanent treatment solutions across industrial, municipal, and environmental remediation sectors.
AI Generated
Other Key Players
Axine Water Technologies 🇨🇦: Uses electricity and advanced electrodes to destroy PFAS and persistent organic contaminants in industrial wastewater.
Aquagga 🇺🇸: They turn containers into “pressure cookers“. High temperature and high pressure to break the stable PFAS bonds.
Since Oxyle activates its nanocatalysts using low-energy mechanical sources, like bubbles or vibrations, they can achieve substantially lower operational costs than all other players.
Mushtaq grew up in Delhi facing water scarcity and anxiety about water quality, which inspired her to make water remediation her life’s mission. She developed novel catalysts to eliminate PFAS after witnessing toxic wastewater being incinerated rather than properly treated.
Staufert, trained in mechanical engineering and nanotechnology, recognized that water treatment alone wasn’t enough without real-time monitoring to verify effectiveness. The two met during their PhDs and combined their ideas to create a complete solution.
They deployed their first commercial PFAS destruction system in Switzerland in 2024 and since then they’ve already completed 20 projects. They now have a pipeline of 50+ potential clients and they’ve raised $26 million.
Top Impact Stats 📈
Achieves >99% elimination rates of PFAS while consuming 15x less energy than alternative destruction methods.
The system eliminates all secondary waste, resulting in zero toxic sludge or contaminated filters.
They aim to treat 100 million cubic meters of contaminated water within the next five years (40,000 olympic-sized pools).
Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:
Scale and optimize your climate business: Automation and AI systems for climate/impact companies so they can free up time, scale their revenues and cut their costs.
Give visibility to your climate company: Get your company in front of an audience of thousands of climate players and enthusiasts by sponsoring newsletter issues and LinkedIn posts.
Thanks for reading today’s issue! If you liked it feel free to hit the ❤️ button and share it with someone who might like it too. See you next Saturday:)
