ViroSoilTM Technology - Operation and Application
ViroSoilTM Technology solutions offer many advantages over the conventional alternatives. These include:
- Better treatment performance. ViroSoilTM Technology solutions outperform conventional techniques both in how rapidly leachate contamination is reduced, and in the extent and longevity of soil remediation.
- Ease of deployment to the contaminated zone. ViroBindTM reagents are safe to use, in contrast to significant health and safety concerns when using, for example hydrated lime, cement, PFA, GGBS or thermoplastic-based treatments. Application of ViroBindTM reagents is operationally simple, being most effective when it is intimately mixed with the material to be treated as a dry powder (Figure 1). Spray irrigation with reagent slurries has also proved successful.
- Versatility of Reagents. Alternative formulations of ViroSoilTM Technology, each with unique physical characteristics to suit specific environmental situations, can be applied. For example, mildly contaminated leachate from land drainage can be treated to remove metals by passing it through columns of pelletised ViroBindTM reagent, whereas an acidic, highly contaminated soil would be treated with the direct addition approach using a more alkaline reagent.
- Application across a wide range of soil types. Soil conditions do not impair the treatment efficiency of ViroSoilTM Technology unlike conventional alternatives. Inorganic ViroBindTM reagents do not alter soil oxygenation (as PFA can), and its performance is not affected by organic contaminants, or aluminium and iron salts within the soil.
- Ecologically safe reagent promotes the recovery of flora. Toxicological studies and field experience have shown that ViroBindTM reagents have only positive ecological impacts. Growth tests have shown that in soils and sediments treated using ViroSoilTM Technology, re-colonisation by flora is both rapid and enhanced (Figure 2). This is in contrast to some conventional treatment approaches, where the long-term capability of treated soils to recover ecologically is of particular concern.
Figure 1: Application of ViroBindTM reagent
Figure 2: Re-vegetation of soils treated with ViroSoilTM Technology (right) compared with untreated soil (left).
