A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself.
Fytolutions is a joint venture between
DEME Environmental offers innovative solutions for soil remediation and brownfield development.
We join forces to provide a nature-based alternative solution for soil remediation.
We want to reverse the historical soil pollution by providing
nature-based solutions that give these soils back to society for various socio-economic purposes and, hence, for the prosperity of the next generations.
Every pollution case is different. A careful analysis is needed to understand the problem.
Based on the analysis, a custom solution can be designed based on off-the-shelf technologies for fytoremediation.
Once implemented, the evolution should be monitored with state of the art technology.
The industrial revolution and linear economy has resulted in
the fact that many soils have been historically contaminated either by direct spills or by atmospheric deposition. This pollution stays in the soil or can further pollute groundwater and connected freshwater bodies. This not only poses a severe risk to public health, but also means that these soils cannot be used for any socio-economic purpose for the foreseeable future.
Even if legislation starts to be more strict on the pollution end, we need to deal with the legacy of historical pollution and take our responsibility.
There are a number of existing soil remediation technologies with a proven track record in the treatment of contaminated soils. These technologies will continue to be applied for projects where:
There are, however, project situations where existing remediation technologies may not be the most applicable and alternatives such as Phytoremeditation can be considered.
Phytoremediation uses plants as catalysts to take up contaminants from the soil matrix.
Plants do this as a part of their metabolism in which they take up water and nutrients from the soil.
The pollutants are not destroyed, but are rather stored in plant parts (which can be different for different pollutants).
Given that different plants have different root depth, different plant species can be combined to target different pollution profiles.
At the end of each growing season, the plants are harvested and the contaminated plant parts are managed in line with waste regulations.
Non-contaminated plant parts are recovered and reused in a wide range of applications, such as the production of sustainable building materials.
