Predictive Chemical Models   2

Background
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking to award a sole source contract to North Carolina State University (NC State) for the purpose of conducting PFAS Thermal Destruction Kinetic Modeling. The contract will involve modeling the thermal destruction of various per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to determine possible mechanisms and products formed during the thermal treatment process. The EPA has identified specific characteristics of the project that limit the availability to a sole source, including the expertise and experience of the contractor, proximity to the EPA's RTP campus, recent collaboration, and unique demands of the project.

Work Details
The requested work will involve developing quantitative chemical models for pyrolysis and combustion of PFAS using computational methods of quantum chemistry, statistical mechanics, and automatic mechanism generation. The contractor is required to have expertise in combustion and incineration chemistry kinetics, experience with fluorocarbon combustion, and experience modeling long chain PFAS molecule combustion. The urgency to develop predictive kinetic tools quickly necessitates a vendor with a long-established history of research and publication in the area of PFAS and fluorocarbon kinetics. The work will result in a firm-fixed price contract and is expected to be established in the mid to late March timeframe.