News

The LIFE MySOIL project celebrated on May 29th, 2024, its third Open Day aiming to illustrate the scalability of mycoremediation solutions for the clean-up of aged TPH-contaminated industrial soil. The event, targeted to the scientific community, policy makers, and engineering and environmental companies, was organised by KEPLER Ingeniería y Ecogestión in Seville (Spain).

The Open Day consisted of a session of talks on bioremediation techniques for soils contaminated with hydrocarbons, with a special focus on mycoremediation, the technology promoted by LIFE MySOIL that uses fungal inoculums to degrade this type of pollutant.

The bioremediation session started with an introduction to KEPLER, Ingeniería y Ecogestión by Norbert Nägele, Director of the company. The public administration was represented by Raúl Vega, Head of the Soil Quality Department of the Junta de Andalucía, who made a presentation on the microbiological treatment of contaminated soils and associated groundwaters.

Following him, Cynthia Alcántara, Director of Consulting and R&D&I from KEPLER, Ingeniería y Ecogestión delved into in situ chemical reduction and anaerobic bioremediation of groundwater contaminated with percholoroethylene.

The next talk was hosted by Carlos García Delgado, Permanent Professor from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, who introduced the benefits of the use of fungi in bioremediation, focusing on its scaling up and how circular economy is involded.

This block wrapped up with a presentation of a soil modeling project, hosted by representatives from Cepsa: Andrea Caso, Soil & Sustainability Advisor; Antonio Gallego, Senior Exploration Geologist; and Andrés Jiménez, Environment Technician.

The Open Day continued with a specific session on the LIFE MySOIL project and mycoremediation. Jofre Herrero, Advanced Researcher and project’s coordinator from Eurecat, introduced the initiative and its goal to demonstrate this technology at a pilot scale.

Anko Fischer, Head of Office in Leipzig from Isodetect, stepped in to present advanced monitoring tools for assessment of natural pollutant biodegradation and success control of bioremediation.

The three demonstration sites of the project were then presented. The French site was introduced by Jean-Michel Scheuren, CEO & Co-founder from Novobiom, and by Laurent Thannberger, Scientific Director from VALGO; the Italian site by Alessandro D’Annibale, Senior Researcher from the University of Tuscia; and the Spanish site by Rafael Antón, Researcher from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and by Jorge Diamantino, Consultant from KEPLER, Ingeniería y Ecogestión.

During the second half of the day, the in-person attendees were able to visit the La Rábida Energy Park (Huelva), where one of the demonstration sites of the project is being operated.