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Media Release

14 July 2003

UniSA researchers clean up Korean contaminated sites

Researchers from the University of South Australia have scored a major research project to improve the way in which heavy metal contaminated sites are cleaned up in Korea. The Commonwealth funded project, worth $250,000, was announced recently by the Minister for Science, Mr Peter McGauran.

Heavy metal contamination of soil and water is a critically important issue in the Australasia-Asia/Pacific region, with more than three million contaminated sites in that area alone, according to Professor Ravi Naidu, Director of UniSA’s Australian Research Centre for Environmental Risk Assessment and Remediation.

“These metal contaminated sites pose a serious risk to environmental, animal and human health. In some sites contaminants continuously leach from the unsaturated soil environment into groundwater, endangering the ground quality,” Professor Naidu said.

One of the difficulties is the lack of cost effective, sustainable and environmentally friendly technology for remediating metal contaminated sites.

UniSA researchers have developed a process that uses a naturally occurring material already present in the ground to effectively bind contaminants such as cadmium, lead and zinc and immobilise them in the soil.

“Once immobilised, these pollutants do not leach from the soil into groundwater, are not taken up by plants and if in the form of dust that is ingested, are not released in the human gut,” Professor Naidu said.

“We are bringing samples of contaminated soil from Korea to our lab at UniSA to see what type and concentration of metal contaminants the soil has, and what proportion of the contaminants present in the soil are in free form. It is this free form, which can potentially leach and contaminate groundwater, that we especially want to bind with this material. We will look at the chemistry of the contaminants in the presence of naturally occurring materials, optimise the system and then transfer our technology back to Korea.

“The naturally occurring material could be used in its current form but by modifying it slightly we can enhance its capacity to bind a greater range of pollutants than is possible with the natural form.

“We are the only ones worldwide using this material. It is cutting edge research that can lead to new technologies with commercial opportunities that will be beneficial for the University through the IP of the Centre.

“Our researchers are doing this work on behalf of Ipoh Pacific Ltd, a company that has millions of tonnes of the naturally occurring material; and with Korean business partner, Cheil Entech Co Ltd. If we can demonstrate success with Korea, it will open up a huge market for this material, not only in Australia, but internationally,” Professor Naidu said.

The joint project has been established through the Australia-Korea Pilot Industrial Technology Cooperation Fund, which works to support Australian-Korean Research and development with a focus on commercial outcomes.

All of the research is being conducted at UniSA’s Australian Research Centre for Environmental Risk Assessment and Remediation by world-class scientists leading research that focuses on risk assessment for the potential impact of contaminants on environmental and human health and what can be done to minimise those impacts.

The Centre was chosen because it is leading remediation research internationally, with its Director recognised as a world authority in this field. Professor Naidu chairs the International Commission on Reclamation and Remediation of Degraded Environment, the International Committee on Bioavailability and the Soil Contamination Research Australasia-Pacific Network, and is Vice President of the International Society of Trace Element Biogeochemistry.

Established in January 2003, the Centre is also a world leader on research into arsenic, which has claimed more than 10,000 lives in West Bengal, India and Bangladesh. UniSA scientists with expert knowledge on the lifecycle of arsenic have developed a similar material to that used for metal contaminants for remediation of arsenic contaminated sites in Bangladesh.

Senator John Hill, the Minister for the Environment, has been invited to open the Centre, which will be officially launched on 29 August 2003.

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