Bacteria to clean up contaminated soil
Tecor, a subsidiary of the Ortec Group in Ivory Coast, operates a treatment center for hydrocarbon impacted soil located thirty kilometers from Abidjan. The facility uses the landfarming technique of bacteria development to eliminate pollution.
Having already been involved in industrial cleaning and the treatment of industrial waste in the Oil & Gas sector, Tecor, present in Ivory Coast since 2014, has now added another area of expertise to its range of services: the treatment of hydrocarbon-impacted soil at its biocenter.
Pollution treatment using bacteria
Is it organic? The two-hectare facility uses landfarming as a method of decontamination. The process involves adding exogenous bacteria to the impacted soil, created after mixing it with green waste. These bacteria then degrade the hydrocarbons, reducing pollution levels from 20,000 to 2,500 ppm* within 12 months.
Every year, the biocenter treats over 3,000 m3 of soil from major construction sites in Ivory Coast (Construction, Oil & Gas, Transportation, etc.) on its two platforms. Once decontaminated, the material is sent to a nearby granite quarry operated by a construction and public works professional whose site requires revegetated soil.
Enhancing the skills of our teams
To reinforce its offer, Tecor relied on the experience gained from other biocenters managed by the Ortec Group in France and in Africa. Its teams received training for treatment, analysis, and parameter adjustment.
Around ten of Tecor’s fifty employees work at the biocenter every day. One third of the subsidiary’s activity is now dedicated to soil treatment, with a strong local content policy encouraging the development of local skills, in compliance with current standards and regulations.
*ppm: parts per million, a unit of measurement for calculating pollution levels (molecules of pollutant per million molecules of air).