Land blighted by chemicals contamination is a major issue for the 21st century. The challenge facing many companies is to recover such land and return it back to its original state, repurposing the land in a sustainable cycle, in what is an example of ‘the circular economy’.
In the 1950s ENI SpA, commenced manufacturing of PVC, synthetic rubbers, vinyl acetates, styrenics, biphenols and other fine chemicals on a 62 Hectare site at Ravenna, Italy. By the 1990s, the ENI site situated on a flat alluvial plain had become significantly contaminated by organic chemicals and heavy metals, through cumulative incidents of mishandling and leakages. The challenge lay in remediating the site to a standard that would permit its sustainable reuse.
Syndial, now Eni Rewind, became the sole owner of the 62 hectare ENI site in 1997. External areas no longer used for production purposes were designated for environmental clean-up. Syndial’s plan titled the NOI Ponticelle Project called for the redevelopment and requalification of a disused industrial area (26 ha) with a permanent remediation and capping of 18 Hectares of highly contaminated land. In seeking long-term innovative solutions Syndial cast worldwide for tenders to deliver the BATNEEC solution to its site’s accumulated problems with POPs and heavy metals contamination.
Blake International acted as a technical and commercial consultant and project manager for Solucorp Industries, whose MBS® technology had been selected for evaluation by Syndial. Blake successfully steered technical approvals for MBS® and commercial bidding against the best competitive technologies, winning the contract for its client heavy metals clean-up technology’s use on the (18 ha) Pontecelle site.
Blake further acted as project consultant on the soil treatment plant design and operation, devising reagent dosing and blending systems, and off-gassing containment and scrubbing system to comply with EU-OSHA limits.
Site contamination levels were permanently reduced to within EU Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC) limits set out in WAC Directive 2003/33/EC and Directive EU 1999/31/EU. Treated materials passed testing by US-TCLP, DIN38,414S(4), UK-NRA, UNI 10802.A.2 and EN12457 methodologies. Successfully treated substrates withstood Multiple Extraction Procedure (MEP) long-term stability tests, indicating >1,000-year treatment stability to acid rain and oxidative degradation.
Blake facilitated the successful bid and implementation of the € 7 million remediation project, enabling its delivery on time and 10% under budget. Treated soils, remediated to internationally accepted standards were successfully returned to site, avoiding costly landfill disposal. And, within months and without reseeding, large sections of the once barren Pontecelle site spontaneously regenerated native flora. Such was the success of the project that Syndial rolled out the proven format across the Ravenna site.
As at 31st December 2019, € 40 million had been spent on the reclamation of the Ravenna site and Eni Rewind expected to spend a further € 30 million for the completion of works as well as € 60 million for the Ponticelle project for commercial redevelopment of the site realising its ambition to retain the land within the ‘circular economy’.
