Soil and groundwater contamination is a global problem to both human and the environment and is expensive to investigate and remediate. For this reason, the European Union(EU) has implemented directives for completing national inventories for estimated 1.2 million contaminated...
Soil and groundwater contamination is a global problem to both human and the environment and is expensive to investigate and remediate. For this reason, the European Union(EU) has implemented directives for completing national inventories for estimated 1.2 million contaminated sites. EU has reported that one of major bottlenecks for this process is the lack of credible information in the required format on contamination of concerned areas. EU has clearly identified the need of new solutions for Site Investigations(SI) of contaminated sites(CS).
In order to improve SI, and to seize the underlying market opportunity, we have developed a disruptive approach to investigate potentially CS. The Methodology for fast and reliable Investigation and Characterization of Contaminated Sites (MICCS) performs a SI and characterization of a CS in one dynamic progress. MICCS provides authorities and property owners a far more detailed and precise description of the soil and groundwater contamination, including identification of the compounds and their concentrations.
The three MICCS partners, Biorem and DGE from Denmark along with Eijkelkamp from The Netherlands have completed this Feasibility Study for the MICCS concept including a Market Analysis, required Product Optimization, Product Validation, Established Agreements between Partners and Sub Suppliers, IPR Issues and Rights along with a Business and Innovation Plan.
The Market Analysis includes a customer profile for the MICCS concept for both end and suppliers of SI. Authorities set specifications for SI, required to register CS. The MICCS concept is meeting these requirements.
A detailed study of the upgrade needs and the feasibility of the technology showed that design improvements are necessary for some technical parts and for software. The resources for these improvements are determined.
A number of meetings and discussions with authorities and other stakeholders have identified the validation and documentation required for acceptance at the market.
Based on the above mentioned identification of improvements to the system and a re-evaluation of the value chain, we have identified all component suppliers and negotiated agreements regarding delivery of components.
The MICCS method for SI will allow a larger number of completed assessments at lower costs in a shorter time. In this respect, more CS in cities will be developed and utilized for the common good of the societies. By identifying the most contaminated sites for ranking order of remediation, the exposure to human and the environment will be minimized, based on the funding available.
More info: http://www.miccs.eu.