The European LIFE MySOIL project is to test on a pilot scale the feasibility of mycoremediation which uses fungal inocula to remove petroleum hydrocarbons from soil, a type of substance which is estimated to be present on average in 35 percent of contaminated sites in Europe.
The project, which is part funded by the European Union’s LIFE programme and has a budget of €2,937,155, seeks to develop an appropriate, cost-effective and sustainable mycoremediation treatment for recovering contaminated soil.
The project includes three study areas in Spain, Italy and France “where we will perform initial characterisation of the soil and contamination, biotreatability tests on a laboratory scale with various fungal inocula and then scale up the experiments until we achieve an optimised pilot test in biopiles,” says Jofre Herrero, the project’s technical coordinator and a researcher at Eurecat’s Water, Air and Soil Unit.
The project further involves drawing up guidelines for implementing mycoremediation and conducting a replicability and transferability study for other areas and pollutants.
Alongside the Eurecat technology centre coordinating the project, the LIFE MySOIL consortium has another seven partners: the Autonomous University of Madrid and engineering firm KEPLER (Spain), the Tuscia University and engineering firm Eni Rewind (Italy), engineering firm VALGO (France), the environmental biotechnology company Novobiom (Belgium) and environmental consultants Isodetect delivering monitoring services (Germany).
