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Aclarity
Aclarity sells the Octa modular electrochemical oxidation system that destroys PFAS contaminants in contaminated water.
Founded
2017Aclarity sells the Octa modular electrochemical oxidation system that destroys PFAS contaminants in contaminated water.
Aclarity is a 2017 spinout of University of Massachusetts Amherst electrochemical-oxidation research, co-founded by engineer Julie Bliss Mullen and operator Barrett Mully. It is a venture-backed, for-profit water-technology company; early capital came from Massachusetts state innovation programs and National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research awards.
It raised a $3.3M seed round in 2022 and a $15.9M Series A in 2023. Founder Mullen led the company through the Series A; Michael Shaw, a water-treatment industry executive, later joined as chief executive. Its first full-scale destruction pilot was sponsored by Xylem in 2023.
Aclarity's core offering is the Octa system, a modular electrochemical oxidation platform that destroys PFAS contaminants on site instead of capturing them for off-site disposal. The system applies electricity to sever carbon-fluorine bonds in contaminated streams, operating on continuous flow at low energy intensity for its class.
Each skid integrates eight reactors and treats up to 16 gallons per minute, with parallel skids scaling capacity to site needs. Aclarity markets the system to landfills, centralized waste-treatment facilities, industrial sites, municipal drinking-water utilities, and airports, offering it as capital equipment or as a treatment service, supported by site evaluations, sample kits, and mobile pilot testing.
Aclarity sells into the market for on-site PFAS destruction, where operators of landfills and centralized waste-treatment facilities face rising costs for handling "forever chemicals" under U.S. federal designation of PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances. The 2022 federal infrastructure law directed billions of dollars toward drinking-water and contamination projects, expanding the pool of funded municipal and industrial buyers.
Destruction technologies compete with established capture-and-dispose approaches such as granular activated carbon and ion exchange, which concentrate rather than eliminate contaminants. The company's outlook depends on the pace at which operators convert from off-site hauling and regeneration toward destructive treatment at the source.
Aclarity's distinguishing posture is destruction rather than capture: its electrochemical oxidation process breaks PFAS molecules on site, whereas incumbent granular activated carbon and ion-exchange approaches concentrate contaminants into media that operators must regenerate or landfill elsewhere. The company positions on-site continuous-flow treatment as eliminating the trucking, storage, and secondary-disposal liabilities attached to spent media.
The modular skid architecture lets operators scale treatment with site flow instead of building dedicated infrastructure, and the company pairs a mobile pilot trailer and sample-evaluation program with commercial deployments to de-risk buyer adoption.