Chemical makers expand PFAS production to meet AI datacenter and chip demand

Pfas companies are launching a “tidal wave” of forever chemicals production to meet demand from the AI industry, a campaign organisation has warned.

Despite alarm over the chemicals, which have been linked to cancer, a survey of the 10 biggest manufacturers found most had plans to increase production.

Many frame their investments around the “AI revolution”, because of the role Pfas play in semiconductor production and next-generation datacentre cooling systems.

But opponents warn that the chemicals, which never degrade in nature, are a ticking timebomb for human and planetary health. They say increased production risks undermining nascent moves to restrict Pfas in Europe, the UK and parts of the US.

“These companies’ expansion plans show that unless governments and regulators insist on a rapid phaseout, we will face a new tidal wave of forever chemicals,” said Anne-Sofie Bäckar, the executive director of ChemSec, the Swedish chemicals watchdog that carried out the research.

ChemSec’s survey found nearly all of the 10 biggest manufacturers of Pfas had plans to increase production, at sites in Europe, Asia and North America.

The boom in AI tech was leading demand, with Pfas used for “eco-friendly” datacentre cooling and in various stages of semiconductor manufacturing.

Japan-headquarted Daikin said it was launching a “datacentre hub” to meet demand, and promised to “maintain and expand our top share in the industry by expanding sales of existing fluorine products and introducing new products”.

The French multinational Arkema was expanding its refrigerant offering, with a new $60m (£44m) production unit in Kentucky that it said “will enable us to follow the rapid expansion of datacenters’ cooling needs”.

And the US Pfas producer Chemours was expanding to meet demand from “advanced datacenters and AI hardware”. It said its “innovative liquid cooling solutions” lower the energy, water, space, maintenance and investment costs of datacentres.

Critics have said Chemours – recently ordered to pay $450m to settle a lawsuit over Pfas discharges – downplays the chemicals’ toxicity and climate impact.

Other companies increasing production were Japanese multinational AGC, Chinese conglomerate Dongyue, India-based chemicals giant Gujarat Fluorochemicals, secretive Russian Pfas producer HaloPolymer, Mexico’s Orbia Fluor & Energy Materials, US-based fluorinated gases producer Solstice and Belgian multinational Syensqo.

Producers also cited Pfas coatings and binders for lithium-ion batteries, used in EVs, laptops and phones, as a parallel growth area. Gujarat Fluorochemicals’ chief executive, Bir Kapoor, recently identified batteries as one of several “sunrise sectors”, alongside datacentres, semiconductors and green hydrogen. “There is a tremendous growth opportunity there,” he said.

The only clear exceptions were the Swiss company Archroma, which was switching to marketing Pfas-free alternatives, and the German giant BASF, which has said it will exit Pfas production by 2028.

Pfas are used for a new form of datacentre cooling touted as more water- and energy-efficient. In “two-phase immersion cooling” systems, servers are immersed in a pool of Pfas with a low boiling point. As the hardware gets hot, the fluid boils, drawing heat away as vapour. That rises to a water-cooled condensing coil at the top of the tank, cools back to a liquid state and re-enters the cycle.

Pfas also play a crucial role in the fabrication process for semiconductors, another sector booming to meet demand from the AI industry.

According to a recent investor note from Danske Bank: “In the world of microchips, these ‘forever chemicals’ are not merely peripheral additives; they are essential ingredients integrated into as many as 1,000 distinct steps at the nanometric level.”

But analysts also warned Pfas were “the hidden risk of the AI boom” with “escalating potential for multibillion-euro remediation and litigation liabilities”.

The carbon-fluorine bonds in Pfas, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are among the strongest in organic chemistry, rendering them incredibly resistant to heat, water and corrosion.

That makes them useful for a range of industrial processes and consumer products. But it also makes them virtually indestructible in the natural environment. As a result, they continue to be recycled through planetary systems, leading to their accumulation in air, water and soil, and up the food chain.

Although Pfas have existed for less than a century, scientists have warned that their accumulation in the environment has already breached a planetary boundary.

Already the chemicals are thought to contaminate the blood of nearly every living person. Research links them to cancer, liver disease, kidney issues, high cholesterol and birth defects.

ChemSec sent finger-prick blood tests to the chief executives of all the European companies in its top 10, encouraging them to test Pfas levels in their own blood and share the results publicly.

“The people who lead them must understand that they too are affected by the toxins they produce, which have been detected in the blood of more than 99% of people worldwide,” said Bäckar.