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Innovative Sustainable Soil Remediation Methods

47 Submissions
$20,000 USD
Challenge closed

Challenge overview

This Challenge is seeking new sustainable soil remediation methods to decontaminate soil of organic pollutants with a fast and effective approach.

This Challenge requires only a written proposal.

Decontamination of soil from organic pollutants is a known problem throughout the world today. The current soil remediation technologies consist of dig and dump, physico-chemical treatments, thermal treatment and conventional bioremediation. The first three solutions constitute costly and energy intensive approaches due to their inherent processes and/or their soil transportation component. Conventional bioremediation is a more sustainable method, environmentally and economically, but it becomes less efficient towards heavy petroleum based hydrocarbons. This Challenge is seeking new sustainable soil remediation methods/technologies that can remove C>12 petroleum base hydrocarbons without soil transport (on/at-site) efficiently and economically, and without environmental effects.

Submissions will include a technical description of the technology/method and evidence of its application on sites and the ability to meet all the Solution Requirements in the Detailed Description.

This is a Theoretical Challenge which requires only a written proposal to be submitted. The Challenge award will be contingent upon theoretical evaluation of the proposal by the Seeker. The solution may combine existing components, commercially available components, and/or novel Solver solutions. Ideas leveraged from other industries with similar problems are encouraged.

The Challenge award will be contingent upon theoretical evaluation of the proposal by the Seeker. If multiple proposals meet all the Solution Requirements, the Seeker reserves the right to award only the solution which they believe best meets their needs. 

To receive an award, the Solvers will not have to transfer their exclusive IP rights to the Seeker. Instead, Solvers will grant to the Seeker a non-exclusive license to practice their solutions. 

Submissions to this Challenge must be received by 11:59 PM (US Eastern Time) on October 10, 2019

Late submissions will not be considered.

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