BiMeSOIL

Design of stabilisation and recovery technologies for metallic soil pollutants by means of native microorganisms.

The BiMeSOIL project has the objective to revalue contaminated soils through a tailor-made in situ treatment design by using specialized native microorganisms in order to improve the leaching or stabilisation processes of problematic metals, such as lead, arsenic, chromium, cadmium or mercury.

Soil characterization and directed biological research will lead to tailored in situ treatment processes through bioremediation (biomagnification and bioaugmentation) or mixed techniques (combined biological and physicochemical).

These are some objectives of the project:

• Soil physical characterization.
• Contaminant identification.
• Biological research, selection, and characterization of organisms capable of decontamination.
• Development of biocarriers for microorganism dispersion and sustainable recovery from recovered residues (biochar, zeolites, etc.).
• Modelling contaminant fate through hydrogeochemical tools.

BiMeSOIL is coordinated by Eurecat through its Water, Air & Soil Unit (WAS), which is responsible for the main development objectives, including site assessment, microbe isolation and characterisation, as well as the treatment design.

The project consortium also counts with the collaboration of Amphos 21 Consulting, an environmental consultancy from Barcelona.