Final Report Summary - PROMOTE (Efficiency control and performance verification of improved approaches for soil-groundwater protection and rehabilitation)
Many innovative environmental technologies lack proven information on their performance under real or field conditions. Therefore, the potential of associated small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to secure sources of finance, proceed to industrial development and penetrate in the market is difficult.
In this direction the European Union established a voluntary system, titled environmental technology verification (ETV), in order to offer credible evaluation of the performance of innovative and new technologies. The PROMOTE project was ETV related and focussed on site characterisation, monitoring and remediation technologies for soil and groundwater.
The European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) workshop agreement 32 provided guidelines for the verification of specific products related to soil and groundwater systems, as long as no European ETV system was in place. In particular, a reporting structure for verified vendor claims of products in these technology areas was specified, along with a standardised set of key information on a specific technology undergoing the procedure.
Following the process implementation and assessment a series of guidelines was developed, referring to the standardisation and best available technique reference documents (BREF), to the verification procedure and to the proposed technology evaluation scales. The system and procedure that were designed as part of PROMOTE were vendor driven systems, meaning to provide valid results on technology performance using fast, easy and cost effective ways. They relied on three entities, namely the European Verification Organisation (EVO), the verification board (VB) and the board of experts. Additional groups were also involved.
The basic ETV procedure consisted of maximum 13 steps, which were divided in the contact, application, test, assessment and publication phases. A users' guide was also published, including generic protocols, forms and checklists in order to apply the desired procedure to specific technology verifications. A series of reference reports were produced based on selected technology assessment tests that were conducted as part of the project. Finally, based on the already developed procedure, the PROMOTE consortium elaborated a similar, gradually evolving ETV approach for remediation technologies, which relied on three tiers.
The project information was disseminated through documentation dispatch, as well as via the PROMOTE and CEN websites. It was estimated that the findings and recommendation would serve as useful guidelines prior to the establishment of an official, fully operable, European ETV system for the environmental technology sector.
In this direction the European Union established a voluntary system, titled environmental technology verification (ETV), in order to offer credible evaluation of the performance of innovative and new technologies. The PROMOTE project was ETV related and focussed on site characterisation, monitoring and remediation technologies for soil and groundwater.
The European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) workshop agreement 32 provided guidelines for the verification of specific products related to soil and groundwater systems, as long as no European ETV system was in place. In particular, a reporting structure for verified vendor claims of products in these technology areas was specified, along with a standardised set of key information on a specific technology undergoing the procedure.
Following the process implementation and assessment a series of guidelines was developed, referring to the standardisation and best available technique reference documents (BREF), to the verification procedure and to the proposed technology evaluation scales. The system and procedure that were designed as part of PROMOTE were vendor driven systems, meaning to provide valid results on technology performance using fast, easy and cost effective ways. They relied on three entities, namely the European Verification Organisation (EVO), the verification board (VB) and the board of experts. Additional groups were also involved.
The basic ETV procedure consisted of maximum 13 steps, which were divided in the contact, application, test, assessment and publication phases. A users' guide was also published, including generic protocols, forms and checklists in order to apply the desired procedure to specific technology verifications. A series of reference reports were produced based on selected technology assessment tests that were conducted as part of the project. Finally, based on the already developed procedure, the PROMOTE consortium elaborated a similar, gradually evolving ETV approach for remediation technologies, which relied on three tiers.
The project information was disseminated through documentation dispatch, as well as via the PROMOTE and CEN websites. It was estimated that the findings and recommendation would serve as useful guidelines prior to the establishment of an official, fully operable, European ETV system for the environmental technology sector.
