EiCLaR - Enhanced and Innovative in-situ Biotechnologies for Contaminated Land Remediation

The project partners are working on the implementation of a cost-effective remediation technology based on microbiological methods. The main objectives of EiCLaR are

• to improve the performance of in-situ bioremediation (ISBR) by integrating specific physical, chemical and electrical processes,
• to demonstrate the improved performance on various pilot sites and, thus,
• to increase the use of efficient, sustainable remediation technologies.

In general, ISBR is a sustainable and cost-effective remediation method based on microbiological processes. EiCLaR combines these biological processes with various non-biological processes to improve the performance of in-situ bioremediation and to expand the remediation to a wider range of soil contamination problems. The contaminants under consideration are for example chlorinated solvents (e.g. TCE, PCE), heavy metals (e.g. As, Cd) and persistent organic pollutants (e.g. PAHs, PFAS).

In three work packages different technologies are developed in order to improve the performance of in-situ bioremediation:

1. (Electro-) Nanobioremediation (ENB) to enhance nano zero-valent iron (nZVI) remediation by bio-electro-approaches for the removal of persistent organo-halogenated pollutants.
2. Monitored Bioaugmentation (MBR) and Bioelectrochemical remediation (BER) to improve metabolic aerobic chloroethene degradation and to optimize bioelectrochemical systems to remediate aromatic hydrocarbon mixture and hexavalent Chromium in soil and groundwater
3. Enhanced Phytoremediation (EPR) to examine its impact on soil microbial activity and ecotoxicity for the treatability of mixed organic and inorganic contaminants, and produce optimized operational parameters for large-scale field applications.

VEGAS is responsible for the up-scaling of the combined biological and non-biological technologies to test whether the microbiologically improved methods have potential on a larger scale and are applicable to field conditions. The effectiveness of these technologies will be tested under controlled conditions in different experimental environments with various scales. The scale of these experiments ranges from columns (up to 2 m) to 2D-box set-ups (70 L) to large containers (20 m³) with field equivalent conditions. Additionally, the test set-ups are equipped with sampling systems and in-situ measurement systems to characterize reactions, degradation products and metabolic products. Additionally, VEGAS is responsible to delineate operating windows for the improved technologies to ensure their acceptance in the remediation market.

See also our brochure!

Claus Haslauer
Simon Kleinknecht

Tobias Junginger

Kathrin Leicht

VEGAS

2021-01-01 to 2024-12-31

18 Partners (13 European and 5 Chinese)

 The EiCLaR project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme  under grant agreement N°965945