Temple Now’s Jonny Hart highlights Md Saiful Islam and Gangadhar Andalur‘s innovative PFAS research.
“Md Saiful Islam, a graduate student from the College of Engineering, and Gangadhar Andaluri, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, are advancing water treatment technology that sustainably removes PFAS chemicals and microplastics from drinking water.
Water treatment plants devote significant resources to removing contaminants from our drinking water. PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals linked to cancer and other health issues, and microplastics can be especially difficult to filter out. But new research from Temple’s College of Engineering may someday offer a simple, sustainable solution, which relies on an unexpected ingredient: air bubbles.
Md Saiful Islam, a PhD student in the environmental engineering program, was selected as the 2025 Graduate Research Award Sustainability Program (GRASP) recipient from the Office of Sustainability to conduct research on combined removal technology for microplastics and PFAS. He is using air bubbles to create foam that captures contaminants and allows them to be easily filtered from water. Unlike existing foam-based treatments, Saiful’s approach can remove both PFAS and microplastics, and it doesn’t require toxic chemicals.
The technology was recognized with an Innovation and Collaboration Award from the Water Resources Association of the Delaware River Basin, and Saiful is beginning to attract interest from partners in the water utilities industry.
It all started while analyzing water collected by the University of New Hampshire. Saiful and his faculty advisor, Gangadhar Andaluri, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, found that most of the PFAS were concentrated in the foam at the water’s surface. They became interested in the mechanisms that resulted in foaming and wondered if the same phenomenon could be used to remove PFAS and microplastics. They then led several studies analyzing how PFAS and microplastics interact and coexist in water.”
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Gangadhar Andaluri, PhD and Md Saiful Islam with Temple University’s Thermal Technologies and Analytical Laboratory received WRA’s 2025 Research Innovation and Collaboration Award for addressing the challenge of removing emerging contaminants of concern from water and wastewater through novel and sustainable treatment innovations.