What is EURODEMO?
Eurodemo is a co-ordination action funded by the European Union’s Research Directorate. Since its inception at the beginning of 2005 it has been aiming to boost demonstrations of soil and groundwater remediation technologies. Top priorities for Eurodemo are:
- to make demonstration of promising soil and groundwater technologies easier to implement
- to harmonise performance evaluation of demonstrated technologies
- to generate an overview of existing funding opportunities and already demonstrated technologies.
Eurodemo operates two interactive databases: one containing information on remediation projects that demonstrate use of innovative or promising remediation technologies, and one providing details of funding resources available for demonstration projects.
For further information on Eurodemo and to access the interactive databases, please visit www.eurodemo.info
The Avenue Feature Project
The Avenue has been accepted as one of eight European Eurodemo feature projects. The following statement was compiled by John Henstock, David Edwards, Dietar Müller and Yvonne Spira of Eurodemo to demonstrate the consortium’s support of the Avenue remediation project. This statement was published within the Eurodemo website on the 12 December 2006.
"EURODEMO Statement
The EURODEMO Consortium is very pleased to endorse Avenue Coking Works, UK, as the first EURODEMO “Feature Project” in the field of European soil and groundwater remediation. The approach adopted for the Avenue project strongly reflects EURODEMO‘s core objectives and priorities:
- Public engagement and knowledge sharing with local residents;
- Well-balanced and inclusive decision-making through early stakeholder engagement;
- Technical collaboration with multi-national partners in Europe through an international funding package;
- A considered remediation strategy encompassing substantial options review and trialling of innovative remediation technologies; and
- delivering best practice in partnering and adopting a financial incentivisation mechanism that encourages innovation without compromising predictability of outcome, cost and timescale for the project.
Public engagement and sharing of information as exercised on the Avenue Project by the East Midlands Development Agency (emda), the project owner, is considered exceptional and regarded as good practice by EURODEMO. Here, good communication has improved public perception, ensuring local community support and confidence in good use of public funds for returning a previously derelict site to beneficial use.
Both the funding package and the project delivery team for Avenue are strongly European. The project teams consists of emda, being supported by Jacobs (US, UK), Turner and Townsend (UK) and the Environment Partnership (UK).
The remediation design has been awarded to VSD Avenue, a consortium comprising DEC (BE, NL), Sita Remediation (NL) and Volker Stevin (UK). The participation of European partners has allowed EMDA the pick of particular specialists and skill sets from a European pool. Project funding comes from the National Coalfelds Programme managed by national regeneration agency English Partnerships, the UK Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) who inherited the “Polluter Pays” liabilities for the site and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
A considerable number of technology options were appraised for the Avenue with numerous field trials and pilot tests undertaken. All results were published, demonstrating serious interest and investment in innovative solutions. These highlighted that innovative techniques are not always standard or transferable applications, emphasising the need to increase European data exchange and cooperation. EURODEMO is confident that the experiences at Avenue will improve knowledge of applicability ranges and anticipated technology performance for other projects in the future.”
It is the range of information available for the Avenue and emda’s approach to best practice and knowledge sharing that makes The Avenue a good feature project for Eurodemo.
From the outset, emda has taken every opportunity to engage with the public and have been actively promoting openness and communication with all stakeholders. Emda is committed to sharing the experiences and data gained at The Avenue for the benefit of other remediation projects. Eurodemo is providing a valuable opportunity for this through publication of trial details in the freely available database and through considering The Avenue as a feature project. Similarly, emda and the Project Team hope to be able to benefit from the experience other organisations have made with remediation of similar projects shared within Eurodemo.
From the outset, emda has taken every opportunity to engage with the public and have been actively promoting openness and communication with all stakeholders. Emda is committed to sharing the experiences and data gained at The Avenue for the benefit of other remediation projects. Eurodemo is providing a valuable opportunity for this through publication of trial details in the freely available database and through considering The Avenue as a feature project. Similarly, emda and the Project Team hope to be able to benefit from the experience other organisations have made with remediation of similar projects shared within Eurodemo.
The Avenue Remediation Trials
The Remediation Trials formed part of the development of a sustainable and effective Remediation Strategy for the site. A scoping exercise was carried out to investigate the potential applicability of a variety of remediation technologies. The Remediation Trials were designed to investigate the potential of a number of these remediation technologies to treat the heavily contaminated materials from the Avenue and generate products suitable for re-use at the site. The effectiveness of a remediation process is largely dependent on site specific variables, such as the nature and extent of contamination, and physical properties of the soil. It was considered essential, therefore, to conduct trials of various remediation technologies with site-won materials in order to validate their applicability. Furthermore, the trials enabled the development of more accurate budget estimates and aided the development and validation of a sustainable Remediation Strategy.
Technologies considered potentially applicable to the site and the Remediation Strategy progressed to remediation trials. Most of these initially compiled of laboratory bench scale trials. Only technologies identified in the scoping exercise and initial trials as potentially applicable to the site and the Remediation Strategy progressed to field trials.
Investigation of potentially suitable techniques included laboratory based tests and field based trials. On-site trials were undertaken for different thermal desorption, soil washing, bioremediation, soil stabilisation and dewatering technologies. An additional thermal desorption trial used a full scale soil treatment facility in Holland for the treatment of granular soils and lagoon sediments. Overall, more than 25 feasibility studies and remediation trials were completed on site-derived materials.
The Remediation Trials have significantly increased knowledge and understanding of the characteristics of the contaminated materials at the site and have given an indication of suitability of different treatment technologies. Additionally, the output allowed a cost-benefit assessment of the technologies and confirmation of the sustainability of the selected technologies. The results of the trials have aided the identification of a sustainable Remediation Strategy for the site aiming at maximising the amount of material that can be treated and re-used on site and minimising the need for off-site disposal in landfills. Indeed, particularly for the heavily contaminated lagoon sediments a sustainable treatment alternative to off-site disposal to landfill was difficult to find. However, the encouraging results of the Overseas Thermal Trial convinced Jacobs, emda and EP to commit to a more sustainable treatment option.
Technical reports were completed for the remediation trials and a number of these can be assessed through the Remediation Trial Reports sub-section under the Eurodemo section on the left hand navigation menu
