Conventionally, contaminated soils are excavated and treated off-site in a soil treatment centre. However, in many cases, treating excavated soils on site is far more sustainable and economical.
On-site treatment eliminates off site transportation and disposal of contaminated soil and strongly reduces the CO2 footprint.
On-site treatment is more cost effective as ex-situ treatment, as the treatment itself is cheaper, no transportation is needed and now new backfill needs to be brought on site.
On-site treatment reduces financial, environmental and health & safety risks.
On-site bioremediation is a soil treatment process in which microorganisms are used to degrade contaminants into harmless end products. This process can be used to treat a variety of contaminants such as petroleum hydrocarbons, solvents, pesticides, and other organic compounds.
Most commonly aerobic biological degradation is used for on-site soil treatment. Microorganisms use oxygen to degrade the contaminants into less harmful substances, such as carbon dioxide, water, and biomass. This process is typically enhanced by adding nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus to the contaminated area to stimulate the growth of microorganisms.
Different types of contaminants however do not degrade (well) under aerobic conditions (e.g. higher chlorinated benzenes, ethenes, etc), in these situations on-site anaerobic bioremediation can be used to degrade the contaminants. Depending on the type of contamination a sequential treatment (anaerobic/aerobic) might be needed. Overall, on-site bioremediation is a proven and cost-effective technique for treatment of contaminated soil.
Stage 1
Contaminated soil is excavated and nutrients are added.
Stage 2
Installation of the aeration system, and construction of the biopile on top of the aeration system.
Stage 3
Process monitoring and controlled operation of the biopile treatment
Stage 4
A clean biopile can be converted in a Biological Air Treatment system to treat the extracted contaminated air from the remaining biopiles.
Do you want to see if Bioremediation is the right approach for your project?
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