The company is increasingly applying techniques such as bioremediation and investigating their feasibility in different scenarios.
The soil and groundwater decontamination sector is increasingly focusing on sustainable and environmentally friendly remediation. In this scenario, bioremediation plays an important role and is one of the most studied techniques nowadays, a bet for the present and the future.

LITOCLEAN has long been applying bioremediation techniques in decontamination projects of hydrocarbons and other petroleum-derived pollutants, and has also investigated their feasibility in cases of contamination by chlorinated organic compounds.
Bioremediation is the use of the metabolism of bacteria to degrade contaminants. Bacteria use the energy released during degradation to grow and reproduce, which allows the process to work by itself as long as contaminants are present in the ecosystem. During the course of degradation, which must be complete, bacteria can transform contaminants into harmless compounds, such as ethene and ethane, for example.
Within the framework of a collaborative project between the Generalitat de Catalunya, the university and private companies, an industrial doctorate, supervised by LITOCLEAN and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona,has been carried out on the feasibility of bioremediation treatments on sites contaminated by organochlorine compounds. In this research, in which the Universitat de Barcelona also participated, several sites contaminated by chlorinated ethenes and methanes, even mixed with other families of pollutants, were studied. The results were positive and encouraging, while in two of them the tests were carried out on a laboratory scale, in the other an in-situ pilot test was implemented and its subsequent application on a global scale.
In the latter case, after laboratory tests, it was confirmed that the necessary bacteria were present and active in the aquifer and could partially degrade the contaminants. Furthermore, the studies showed that to achieve complete degradation up to detoxification it was necessary to add a stimulant as this increased the degradation capacity of the contaminants. Subsequently, the in-situ pilot test confirmed the hypotheses observed in the laboratory, which allowed establishing a methodology for the successful implementation of site-wide bioremediation.
This research has successfully detoxified the aquifer and increased LITOCLEAN’s knowledge of bioremediation processes in different scenarios, something that will continue to be studied by the company, which is strongly committed to innovation and sustainable techniques.