Innovative Sustainable Soil Remediation Methods

Deadline: 2019-10-10
Award: $20,000
Open to: Everyone*

Decontamination of soil from organic pollutants is a known problem throughout the world today. The current soil remediation technologies consist of dig and dump, physico-chemical treatments, thermal treatment and conventional bioremediation. The first three solutions constitute costly and energy intensive approaches due to their inherent processes and/or their soil transportation component. Conventional bioremediation is a more sustainable method, environmentally and economically, but it becomes less efficient towards heavy petroleum based hydrocarbons. This Challenge is seeking new sustainable soil remediation methods/technologies that can remove C>12 petroleum base hydrocarbons without soil transport (on/at-site) efficiently and economically, and without environmental effects.