Hydrogen-Powered Technology: The Green Future of Environmental Restoration
Hydrogen-powered environmental remediation
A Sustainable Approach to Remediation
Soil contamination poses a number of dangers to environmental health and subsequently human health. While cleanup of any kind is better than allowing pollutants to seep into water tables, when given the option governments, corporations and developers want more sustainable alternatives to traditional remediation technology. Traditional ex situ and in situ technology is antiquated, bulky, hard to transport and inefficient. It requires a big team to oversee the process. And, treatment outcomes are dependent on variables such as the soil type, contaminants, climate conditions and more which means up to 30% of the impacted soil often needs to be trucked to a landfill.
As environmental industry experts, Iron Creek Group bridges these gaps, introducing a greener way to fully eliminate contamination. Powered by hydrogen fuel, the patented Enhanced Thermal Conduction (ETC) Technology and TechZero Technology provide a nimble, innovative approach to soil and sludge remediation, resulting in a safer treatment process and the complete elimination of environmental liability.
Environmentally Sustainable Remediation Matters
Iron Creek’s technology is superior to traditional soil remediation technology for a number of reasons. It’s emergency ready, space efficient and scalable. There’s no waste, meaning one hundred percent of soil and sludge contamination is treated, keeping pollutants out of landfills. The technology treats all organic contaminants, including PFAS, hydrocarbons, explosives and more. Further the process is designed to utilize contaminated soils and sludges to power part of the remediation process, recycling waste while allowing corporations to delist their waste. It’s a game changer for environmental restoration. Unlike traditional technology Iron Creek’s designs can be powered with renewable fuels like hydrogen to reduce the carbon footprint of cleanup. More so, their treatment process remains stable and systematic no matter the fuel type.
Green Powered PFAS Elimination
PFAS contamination is a significant and growing concern. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are man made chemicals that have been in use since the 1940s. They are found in everything from dental floss to Scotchguard and are known to be fast to build up and slow to break down. As new research emerges with findings that show high-levels of PFAS in food, water, soil and livestock, scientists are currently studying the effects of long-term PFAS exposure and how they impact human health.
How did PFAS chemicals used in fire fighting foam, waterproof clothing or furniture manufacturing contaminate soil, food and livestock? Wastewater. Dating back to the Blue Plains Wastewater treatment facility in the 1930s, public works departments have been separating biosolids from wastewater, treating the solids for known chemicals and recycling the material on agricultural lands, public parks and land. Fertilizer suppliers would also source the material and bag it for sale in farm and garden stores. The practice was adopted across the US and monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the early 1980s. What wasn’t known, until recently, was that wastewater from manufacturing plants contained high levels of PFAS chemicals that were not part of the EPA’s Part 503 rule that requires biosolids to be treated for pathogens and a series of chemicals prior to land application.
As concerns for PFAS contamination of food and water sources grow, municipalities are tasked with finding new ways to treat biosolids and contaminated public land. A traditional method for treating PFAS was incineration, but incineration doesn’t destroy PFAS. It releases the chemicals into the air where they can affect nearby communities.
Iron Creek’s patented TechZero technology eliminates organic contaminants and safely destroys the PFAS compound, using conduction, convection, oxidation, and vaporization processes to eliminate PFAS and other contaminants from sludges and soils. The technology is powered by hydrogen, giving cities a sustainable, carbon neutral way to safely recycle biosolids. Compared to alternative treatment methods, TechZero is cost-effective, space efficient and emergency ready— it can be operational within a day or two providing an immediate solution for PFAS contamination.
TechZero isn’t limited to PFAS treatment, it also provides refineries a carbon neutral way to recycle and eliminate tank and process waste, allowing refineries to delist the waste and keep contaminants out of landfills.
The Greening of Brownfield Cleanup
Not only can Iron Creek sustainably treat PFAS contamination and provide refineries a more environmentally sustainable tank and process waste protocol, they also have patented remediation technology to restore brownfields and large areas of contaminated land using carbon neutral applications like ETC technology.
Enhance Thermal Conduction technology produces guaranteed remedial endpoints, restoring contaminated land to residential standards. The technology can treat all types of soils in any climate condition. It is space efficient, mobile, and emergency ready to remediate petroleum or explosives-impacted soil on-site by predictably volatilizing and eliminating the pollutants. There are no moving parts to the remediation process so the process is quiet and safe for ground crews.
The superior design of ETC technology treats one hundred percent of waste, eliminating all contingent liability. This means there is no future environmental liability, no need to truck contaminated material to landfills or ship in nonnative soils. The area is treated to exceed environmental regulations preventing the contamination of water tables and making the brownfield safe for revegetation and residential use. More so, the treatment process is powered by hydrogen to reduce the carbon footprint of brownfield cleanup.
Getting on Board with Hydrogen-Powered Remediation
At Iron Creek Group, we are large proponents of using sustainable remediation methods such as ETC and TechZero technologies to support environmental restoration and provide sustainable waste treatment alternatives to refineries and municipalities. Our team of environmental professionals have years of experience supporting environmental consultants and operation managers across a spectrum of industries that range from the Department of Defense to the National Science Foundation. This patented, cost-effective, carbon neutral remediation technology is predictable and proven to clean up hard to treat contaminants in even the most challenging environments.
About Iron Creek Group
Serving North America, Iron Creek Group specializes in developing innovative, nimble technology that solves complex environmental issues. Learn how they’re leveraging technology to challenge the existing remediation paradigm by visiting, https://www.ironcreekgroup.com
For questions and further information, please email Ken Bell: ken@ironcreekgroup.com.