NICOLE E-News June 2015

NICOLE E-News June 2015

 

NICOLE Workshop update

Spring workshop (24-26 June 2015):
Location: University of Manchester, United Kingdom

Preparation for the Manchester workshop is being finalised. Please find below a brief summary of the upcoming program:

24th June: NICOLE working group meetings, General Assembly and welcome drinks
25th June: NICOLE conference (with NICOLE Tech Award nominees presentations and public voting) and conference dinner (with NICOLE Tech Award winner ceremony)
26th June: NICOLE conference

To take a look at the full detailed program, please click this link.

A kind reminder, if you haven’t sent the registration for the workshop. Please fill it in and return to the NICOLE Secretariat.

Welcome to our new Service Provider Group member!

A very warm welcome to our new member Integral Consulting Inc!

Integral Consulting Inc. is a US-based science and engineering firm providing multidisciplinary services in the fields of health, environment, technology, and sustainability. Their primary goal is to help their clients make informed decisions, manage risk effectively, and identify optimal solutions by applying their science and engineering expertise.

For more information please visit their website.

Technology Award Announcement

Dear NICOLE member,

Thank you for your contribution to the NICOLE Technology Award 2015.
We have received 17 extensive contributions this year.

The Jury Group consists of:
– Mr Paul van Riet – ISG chair (Dow Benelux)
– Mr Arthur de Groof – SPG chair (Grontmij Netherlands)
– Mr Hans-Peter Koschitzky – Representative for Acadmics at SG (University of Stuttgart, VEGAS, Research Facility for Subsurface Remediation)

The 3 Jury members have selected the top 3 entries based on the following criteria: Technical innovation, performance and technical validation, potential cost saving, potential market uptake, use/implementation in the field, clearness of proposal and interest for NICOLE ISG/SPG members.

During the NICOLE workshop in Manchester on 25 June, all three candidates will be invited to give a presentation of 10 minutes about their entry. During the day, each company (one representative per company) will hand in their submission to the NICOLE Secretariat. Voting cards will be prepared and will be handed out upon registration by the NICOLE Secretariat. Each NICOLE member company (i.e. not each participant to the workshop!) can submit one voting card with its preferential winner.

The winner will be announced during the conference dinner on 25 June.

Prizes are:
o 1500 € for the winning entry
o 750 € for 2nd best
o Pre-selected entries (top 5), unless already a member via their organisation, have been offered three admission tickets to attend the NICOLE workshop (NICOLE organises 2 workshops a year); in case s/he is already member via an organisation, s/he may ‘donate’ these tickets to a non-member of their choice.

New working group – Operational Window of Remediation Technologies

From time to time the remediation performance does not fulfil the expectations. Even well-established technologies like bioremediation or in-situ chemical oxidation (ISCO) may fail in achieving more than one order of magnitude contaminant reduction if not applied under the appropriate conditions. Failing the right operational window may result in a low remediation success, expressed as Order of Magnitude (OoM; Figure 1) Furthermore it is astonishing that even thermal treatment technologies which claim to be highly efficient may fail in some cases. The working group will elaborate appropriate operational windows with the aim of substantial cost savings in remediation business.

Dr Thomas Held at Arcadis Deutschland GmbH will be the chair of this new Working Group. He will present more details on this WG at the SPG and ISG meetings in Manchester on 24 June. We will appreciate if there could be a ISG member to volunteer to co-chair with Thomas Held for this WG.

Shaping the future of NICOLE

It has been suggested that NICOLE should re-orientate itself for the future and prepare and implement this transition over the next 2 years, evolving from a rather reactive soil oriented approach (aimed at managing contaminated sites from the past) to a more pro-active, broader and sustainable approach, where NICOLE offers companies a platform to share good practices on sustainable land/ environmental management. This transition would include NICOLE adapting it’s name. For instance, one suggestion received from one of our members was to change it to something like «Network for Industrially Co-ordinated Sustainable Land Management Europe”.

Please do provide any possible suggestions to the NICOLE secretariat. Also if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact Nan Su of the NICOLE Secretariat.

   

Nanoremediation update by Catherine Leaf

Nanoremediation describes the in situ use of nanoparticles (NPs) in the treatment of contaminated groundwater and soil. Nanoremediation processes generally involve reduction or oxidation, which in some cases may be facilitated by an embedded catalyst. As a result of their size, NPs have unique properties, which may give nanoremediation benefits over competing technologies. Anticipated benefits of NP use in remediation include increasing the speed and degree of contaminant destruction, extending the range of treatable problems and avoidance of generating intermediate breakdown products.

The NanoRem project is a €14M, four year research project funded by the European Commission with a very large research team representing 28 partner organisations from 13 countries. It is designed to further investigate the potential for NPs to be used as a remediation technology in a European context and was previously described in the October 2014 NICOLEnews bulletin. As explained in that update, NICOLE is represented on the NanoRem project by Catherine Leaf, a contaminated land specialist with Ramboll Environ (formerly ENVIRON). Catherine is a member of the Project Advisory Group for NanoRem focusing on the practical application considerations relevant to problem site owners and service providers including cost, effectiveness, treatment mechanisms and periods and the need for a clearly defined end point which will address both regulatory requirements and sustainability. Here Catherine provides a brief update on the NanoRem project following the midway project meeting held in Barcelona in April.

NanoRem is making substantial progress. An essential part of the NanoRem project is the proof of concept of NP based remediation at a range of field sites. Particles tested include different kinds of nanoscale zero valent iron (nZVI), Carbo-Iron® and iron-oxide (Goethite) NPs, see below. Each of these particles targets specific contaminants (e.g. organic, inorganic, chlorinated hydrocarbons). They enhance specific remediation processes (chemical reduction or oxidation, microbial dechlorination or oxidation etc.). Moreover, each NP suspension has specific requirements with respect to hydrogeological (coarse or fine grained porous material, fractures) and hydrogeo-chemical (pH, salinity, redox conditions etc.) site conditions. As of May 2015, different particles have been injected in pilot sites in Zurzach (CH), Usti nad Labem 1 (CZ) and Besor-Secher (IL). By the end of 2015, four additional applications will take place in Usti nad Labem 2 (CZ), Balassagyarmat (HU), Barreiro (PT), and Nitrastur (ES). These field scale experiments are providing practical experience in the varying requirements of practitioners and regulators across the different countries which is hugely valuable in furthering the understanding of the practicalities of applying nanotechnology as a remediation technique. This work is supplemented by large scale tank experiments taking place at the Vegas facility in Stuttgart and detailed mobility studies to support process optimisation.

If you are interested for more information please contact Catherine Leaf

Events

NICOLE Spring Workshop 2015

June 24 – 26, 2015, Manchester, England
website

NICOLE organises yearly two workshops for its members on issues concerning contaminated land.

This Workshop’s main subjects will cover: Pharmaceutical and personal care products, Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), Asbestos, Challenging Metals and Radionucleides and Radioactive substances.

ICEENN 2015

September 6- 10 2015, Vienna, Austria
website

Engineered nanoparticles and nanomaterials offer many potential benefits as a result of novel properties and behaviour that materials can exhibit when manufactured or precisely manipulated at the nanoscale. The 10th ICEENN will bring together researchers, regulators and industry from all over the world to discuss the potential hazards and resulting risks of current and future applications in the key sector of nanotechnology, along with ways to characterize nanoparticles and mechanisms to bring about risk reduction to harvest the economic and social benefits of this fascinating technology.
BodemBreed Symposium 2015

24 November 2015, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

BodemBreed has been the main conference on soil issues in the Netherlands for more than 25 years.

Apart from the ‘classic’ theme of dealing with soil and groundwater contamination, the themes at BodemBreed this year include Spatial planning, Knowledge and innovation, Landfill management, and Water and Climate

NICOLE Fall Workshop 2015

4 – 6 November 2015, Brussels, Belgium

The proposed content of the workshop will be about:
– General practice across Europe;
– Pollution prevention to avoid the application of ELD;
– Experience with implementation;
– Challenges in the assessment of a site’s situation and in remediation.
E-news NICOLE is compiled & distributed by:
Nan Su (NICOLE Secretariat) – P.O. Box 28249 – 3003 KE Rotterdam – The Netherlands
Mobile phone: +31 (0)6 41374680 – Web: nicole.org – E-mail: nan.su@nicole.org

 

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