Our Remediation Team Won a CUI Brownie Award
The 15th Annual Canadian Urban Institute (CUI) Brownie Awards were handed out at the Daniels Spectrum in Toronto’s Regent Park neighbourhood. The Brownie Awards program recognizes leadership, innovation and environmental sustainability in brownfields redevelopment across Canada. The CUI bring together urban practitioners from the private, public and not-for-profit sectors to participate in various events with top thinkers, leading experts and decision-makers from Canada and abroad. The 2014 Brownie Award for Sustainable Remediation Technologies and Technological Innovation was awarded to the Greenwich Mohawk Brownfield demonstration project for steam enhanced extraction.
Our dedication to innovation lead us to believe that stream enhanced extraction technology would prove to be a success for the application to brownfields and other heavy oil contaminated sites in Ontario. Accuworx Inc. became the only environmental service provider to hold an Environmental Compliance Approval from the Ministry of the Environment to utilize the technology. In conjunction with our partners, Groundwater Technology, steam was used to heat the soils (> 100°C) at the Greenwich Mohawk Brownfield and an excess of 1,100 litres of pure oil were extracted from the soils in just 3 weeks which in turn ended up being recycled. Triple Bottom Line analysis demonstrated that this in-situ approach produces a smaller carbon footprint than other techniques. The environmental impact of the remediation is evaluated based on CO2 emissions. In comparison, excavation by excavator, hauling away by truck and final soil treatment would generate 40% more CO2 emission than heat enhanced remediation. The success of the Brantford project paves the way for this advanced remediation technology to be applied to the Canadian soil remediation market.
We would like to congratulate all those involved in the project including our partners Groundwater Technology as well as The City of Brantford. The leadership of former Brantford City Councillor Marguerite Ceschi-Smith is particularly acknowledged, her vision and forward-thinking was key to Brantford’s decision to support the demonstration project and bring Groundwater Technology to help advance further research and knowledge in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada. The project was carried out with assistance from The Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Green Municipal Fund and The Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs under the 2g@there program through the Netherlands Soil Platform. Assistance was also provided by the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Toronto.
