Selected Innovative Approaches

The remainder of this chapter introduces a selection of remediation processes that do not involve excessive disturbance of the ground surface or the bulk excavation and removal of contaminated material. Those considered are  

Wood and R. Swannell, Response to Spills Involving Ground Penetration and Contaminated Land Remediation, in Inter spill 2000 A New Millennium—A New Approach to Spill Response, ISBN 0-85293-3177, Institute of Petroleum, London, UK, 2000, pp. 164-196. 

Installation of low permeability barriers to reduce migration of soil vapours and contaminated groundwater Removes VOCs from soil atmosphere by vacuum pumping and encourages further volatilisation from soil particles and groundwater surface 

Aerates soils by air injection to encourage biodegradation of contaminants. Can be augmented by addition of nutrients 

Reagents are injected into the soil to remove contaminants from particles and into cleaning solution. Solution is then pumped to surface Addition of reagents to achieve a chemical change in the contaminant to make it less toxic or less mobile/bioavailable. Approaches include oxidation/reduction, neutralisation, hydrolysis Removes contaminated groundwater by pumping for treatment on the surface. Treated groundwater can subsequently be returned 

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Nonchemical or traditional practices, such as weed seed removal, optimal crop seeding rates, crop selection, enhanced crop competitiveness, crop rotation, and mechanical weed control are all important components of an effective weed management program (458,459). In the context of modern intensive chemical herbicide appHcation, nonchemical practices may even represent an innovative approach to weed management and should receive careful consideration. 

The design of any DCC experiment involves several components, loosely aligned with the components of a system undergoing Darwinian evolution (Fig. 1.4) (1) a library of building blocks (components of a population), (2) a reversible reaction (analogous to a mutagenesis method or reproduction), (3) a selection mechanism, and (4) an analytical method. The relatively short history of DCC has seen many innovative approaches to... 

Mosbach and collaborators, in 2001, described an innovative approach to drug discovery using polymers imprinted with a biologically active template [31]. The approach, called anti-idiotypic for the similarity with anti-idiotypic antibodies in the immune-response, can be used to create synthetic receptors able to generate inhibitors or receptor antagonists by exploiting the complementarity with the cavity. The imprinted cavity promotes preferentially the formation of compounds with high affinity, which can later be evaluated for the inhibitory activity and the more active selected for further analysis. 

Whereas a chapter1 in an earlier issue of this series summarised the full range of remediation methods available, this chapter introduces overall remediation approaches and then details a selection of innovative approaches that are starting to be applied within the UK. Emphasis is on remediation technologies that are essentially in situ techniques and which generally involve minimal disturbance of the ground surface. 

Novel and innovative approaches for the selective catalytic homogeneous oxidation of alkanes and alkenes to produce industrially important alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, and epoxides aie still urgently needed. Homogeneous catalytic oxidation is a process that is more selective to products and, as well, the reactions aie carried out at lower temperatures in comparison to heterogeneous catalytic oxidation reactions. However, the separation of the homogeneous catalyst from the oxidation products is energy intensive for example, distillation, as well as possible thermal decomposition of the catalyst during distillation. We will discuss... 

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