VeruTEK Technologies, Inc. (VeruTEK) has completed an in-place remediation of contaminated soils and groundwater at a legacy site of a Fortune 500 client. The remediation uses the company’s Surfactant-Enhanced In Situ Chemical Oxidation (S-ISCO). This eco-friendly, green and safe remedial approach enables a complete remediation of subsurface soils and the groundwater. The technologies like the company's remedy contaminants in place, offers a far better and more cost effective solution.

The contaminants at the site consisted chlorinated free phase or Dense Non Aqueous Phase Liquids (DNAPLs), trichloroethene (TCE), isomers of dichloroethene (DCE), and other chlorinated solvents. S-ISCO is remediation process technology platforms developed by the company to target and remedy various types of DNAPLs.

The company’s technology platforms, including S-ISCO, Surfactant Enhanced Product Recovery (SEPRTM), Green Synthesis of the Nanometals and Nano Biopolymers and Coeluent Metal Extraction and Recovery, are effective and in-place technologies that use the chemistry of soil with safe plant extracts and surfactants to remedy toxic pollution.

“VeruTEK® is a new type of environmental green technology company in a generally very low-tech market,” said John Collins, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of VeruTEK. “Existing simplistic and ineffective technologies (for example, digging, hauling and containment), in many cases, are not effective in protecting human health and the environment and in some cases may actually increase the risk to communities when implemented. These low-tech approaches frequently leave much of the contamination in place, because of partial removal of wastes, inaccessibility of wastes to be removed or stabilized because of buildings, roads, railroads and residences. So-called ‘stabilization’ of wastes inherently leaves the wastes in place and is only a partial and temporary solution. In contrast, we believe VeruTEK’s green technology successes can protect communities, reduce liability and reduce the costs of remediation for everyone.”

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) anticipates there are 294,000 contaminated sites in US in need of remediation. Fortune 1000 companies have reserved between $250 billion and $1 trillion to clean up such sites, but many of these projects have been delayed due to the lack of effective cleanup technologies. As such, over 50% of the remediation in US involves digging up the soil and storing toxic waste in landfills.

The company maintains a new laboratory and research and development facility in Bloomfield, Connecticut. It has developed remediation technologies to treat the sources of soil and groundwater contamination at the industrial, utility, commercial and government owned sites. The treatment processes allow controlled dissolution and desorption of organic phase chemical contaminants using the plant-based, FDA-approved plant extracts along with simultaneous destruction of these toxic chemicals. The development of these technologies will discard the need for costly and unsustainable landfilling, and also incineration of wastes formerly used at many sites. The company implements site-specific remedies with the designer surfactant/oxidant combinations that are environmentally safe and non-intrusive to the nearby communities.