MICCS-DEMO · Demonstration of Methodology for fast and reliable Investigation and Characterization of Contaminated Sites

Soil contamination is an increasing worldwide problem, which poses severe threats to ecosystems and human health. Therefore, a lot of resources are used for investigating contaminated sites, limiting the damage from pollution and cleaning polluted soil and groundwater.The MICCS project (project no. 222204 co-funded by the EU through the 2007 Research for SME Call) has led to the development of an advanced in-situ soil investigation method for identifying and characterising pollution which is 30% faster and thus reduces the cost for site investigation by 20% compared with conventional methods. This has been achieved by integrating a novel drilling probe technology with dedicated selective and very sensitive volatile organic components sensors (Triple sensor system), combining this with improved ground penetrating radar methods (GPR).After successful completion of MICCS, the consortium is now faced by a number of remaining and real market barriers. The proposal in MICCS-DEMO is therefore to carry out a targeted full-scale demonstration of the MICCS technology. Additional measurements need to be performed under different conditions with regard to geography, geologies, and pollutants. The results obtained need to be compared with existing data obtained from representative samples analysed by conventional methods. The MICCS-DEMO demonstration is needed to ensure documentation and to gain regulatory acceptance of the new MICCS technology. This is a crucial demand from the end-users within the soil investigation and remediation industry, which otherwise are highly reluctant to introduce new equipment, in particular, due to the need for regulatory acceptance of the methods undertaken. Essentially, regulatory acceptance is a key market barrier to be overcome by the project, given the fact that regulators issue necessary site approvals, which are thus important for market uptake of the MICCS technology.