Start for the EU project MIBIREM in which a "toolbox" to support the remediation of contaminated sites with microbiomes is being developed. The microbiomes should help to remediate contaminated soils and groundwaters throughout Europe, such as at fuel stations, former gas plants, or sites of the chemical industry. AIT soil remediation expert Thomas Reichenauer, Competence Unit Bioresources of the AIT Center for Health and Bioresources, is responsible for the scientific coordination and contributes AIT expertise in microbiome and soil remediation.
In Europe, there are currently about 324,000 severely contaminated sites such as refineries, power plants, or chemical industry production sites. Cleaning these contaminated soils with conventional technologies is time-consuming, technically complex, and thus expensive. The MIBIREM project will exploit the potential of microbiomes (the set of microorganisms that colonize a given environmental compartment) for bioremediation. This involves the use of living organisms, mostly bacteria and fungi, to remove contaminants from the environment of contaminated soils and groundwaters. MIBIREM will develop and apply a unique toolbox to identify, analyse, cultivate and scale-up microbiomes for environmental bioremediation. Through its toolbox, the project will provide innovative methods to improve the functions of microbiomes in degrading contaminants in soil and groundwater. By testing the improved microbiomes under real field conditions at selected sites, MIBIREM aims to pave the way for long-term upscaling of microbiome-based bioremediation.
AIT expert Thomas Reichenauer, Competence Unit Bioresources of the Center for Health and Bioresources, is in charge of the scientific coordination of the European joint project with eleven interdisciplinary partners from six EU countries, which is funded by the European Union under Horizon Europe. The project was officially launched on October 1, with the first meeting taking place in Vienna at AIT from October 19-21, 2022. With RDTS, the overall coordination of the project is also in Austrian hands.
More Information (DE): https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20221025_OTS0053/mit-innovativer-mikrobiom-toolbox-verunreinigte-boeden-sanieren
Microbial sanitation: https://www.ait.ac.at/en/research-topics/translate-to-english-bioresources/translate-to-english-remediation
The project partners:
- RTDS - ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF COMMUNICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION (RTDS ASSOCIATION, ENGL. RTDS ASSOCIATION) - Austria.
- AIT AUSTRIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GMBH - Austria
- UNIVERSITY OF HASSELT - Belgium
- CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS- France
- UNIVERSITY OF GENT - Belgium
- SENSATEC GMBH - Germany
- ALTAR- France
- DND BIOTECH SRL - Italy
- UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT-Netherlands
- UNIVERSITA DI PISA-Italy
- TAUW BV- Netherlands