53-ft Mobile Foam Fractionation PFAS Treatment Trailer

A PFAS treatment technology provider required a transportable PFAS treatment platform based on their electrode-enhanced foam fractionation process, capable of mobilizing to remediation sites and treating up to 25 GPM of process fluid. Because PFAS treatment projects often run on tight schedules and move between sites, the client needed the entire treatment train packaged inside a road-legal 53-ft trailer with factory-installed mechanical, process, and control systems.

The platform had to coordinate four fractionators, multiple transfer pumps, foamate collection tanks, a dual-blower package, and a full PLC / HMI control system — all within the footprint of a single trailer. Climate control, secondary containment, leak detection, and E-Stop safety were required so the system could operate in varied field conditions. The electrical and control design needed to be documented to a level sufficient for site electricians to connect power without further engineering.

Fliteway modified one new 53-ft dry van trailer into a climate-controlled process enclosure. Modifications included two 36" commercial steel service doors, four LED strip lights, two 18" vent fans with louvered vents and baffle boards, 1" spray-foam sound and thermal insulation on the interior walls and ceiling, two 3-kW fan-forced heaters, GFCI receptacles, thermostat-controlled ventilation, bed-liner non-slip floor coating, an E-Stop, secondary containment, and a leak detection switch.

Inside and on skids adjacent to the trailer, Fliteway installed the full foam fractionation treatment train: a client-supplied influent tank (TK-01), four fractionators (FF-1 through FF-4), seven transfer pump skids (CP-1 through CP-8) each built around a Goulds transfer pump with isolation ball valves, discharge check valves, pressure gauges, sample ports, and electromagnetic flow meters, a 1,000-gallon foamate tank (TK-2) and a 550-gallon foamate tank (TK-3) both supplied by Fliteway with level instrumentation and drain connections, and a client-supplied foam concentrate tank (TK-4).

The blower package was fabricated on an epoxy-coated steel skid and carries two Eurus ZG50 blowers, each with an inlet filter, inlet silencer, 5-HP 208-240/480V three-phase motor, discharge silencer, check valve, pressure transmitter and gauge, globe valves, and thermal mass flow meters. All process piping matched the client-supplied P&IDs.

The electrical and control system was built around an Allen-Bradley CompactLogix PLC, an AutomationDirect HMI, NEMA 4 painted steel enclosures, remote telemetry hardware, and Allen-Bradley VFDs with load reactors per the P&ID specification. Fliteway programmed the PLC and HMI per the client's functional description and delivered a complete engineering submittal package: dry-van trailer design drawings, P&IDs, electrical single-line and conduit layout drawings (with full-load amps), electrical conduit and conductor schedule, control system construction details, programming functional description, instrumentation and pump submittals, and as-built drawings.

Prior to shipment, Fliteway completed factory acceptance testing covering instrumentation calibration, loop checking, alarm testing, piping pressure testing, process equipment leak tests, and performance tests. A two-day onsite startup and operator training visit was included to prove out the full system once permanent connections were made at the site.

The completed 53-ft mobile foam fractionation trailer left Fliteway's Cudahy facility as a single turnkey PFAS treatment platform — trailer modifications, foam fractionation equipment, pump skids, foamate storage, blower package, and controls all pre-installed, pre-wired, and tested. Factory acceptance testing verified process equipment, instrumentation, and PLC logic before the trailer hit the road, minimizing field commissioning risk.

The mobile form factor gave the client a deployable 25-GPM PFAS treatment asset capable of moving between remediation sites, while the full engineering submittal package (drawings, functional description, and as-builts) gave site teams everything they needed for electrical hookup, permitting, and operator training.