Objective
The different sources of pollution: toxic waste storage,
industrial sites, accidental pollution can lead to severe
resource pollution in case of seepage. The project ECOMAT
aims to develop new materials and technologies for the
confinement of polluted soils, in order to prevent the
possible flow out of contaminated water. This objectives
represent a very important social and economical target
for Europe.
The encapsulation of polluted areas meets today several
great difficulties:
the drilling fluid used for the trench excavation is
highly sensitive to the cations and pollutants
originating from the soil formation or watertable,
creating great difficulties to maintain its rheology and
leading to important volumes of waste mud that are to be
eliminated. This volumes of waste mud are less and less
accepted by dumping areas making it necessary to improve
flocculation technologies for the in situ treatment of
the waste mud.
the confinement of toxic waste storage requires to
ensure the long term efficiency of the slurry material in
aggressive waters. The performances of the retention
materials have still to be improved toward metallic and
organic pollutants.
Two mains tasks have been identified as essential to meet
this challenges:
1. The study of bentonite clays available in Europe in
order to select the most insensitive and the development
of additives to improve their rheological stability in a
polluted environment. New sensors will be develop as well
to allow a real time on site monitoring of the mud
characteristics.
2. The study of different cement bentonite mixes and
their improvement using different cement formulation and
additives (zeolites, organoclays...). The objective is to
improve the durability to 100 years and the retention
properties by a factor 2.
The consortium will comprise a French contractor
specialized in foundation works, a German bentonite
supplier and a Belgium cement supplier, interested in the
development of new products to reach the environmental
market. Three research organizations will bring their
expertise to the consortium: a Spanish research
organization for the development of the sensors and the
monitoring system and two universities from Germany and
France for the improvement of the mud rheological
stability and for the improvement of the long term
performance of the retention materials.
Fields of science
Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
92000 NANTERRE
France