| Responsible Department | Department of Basic Science and Environment | ||||||||||||
| Earliest Possible Year | BSc. 3 year to MSc. 2 year | ||||||||||||
| Duration | Outside schedule | ||||||||||||
| Credits | 5 (ECTS) | ||||||||||||
| Level of Course | Joint BSc and MSc | ||||||||||||
| Examination | Continuous Assessment written examination and oral examination Portfolio Examination All aids allowed Description of Examination: Over the 3 course weeks the students will be presented for 3 thematic problems on soil remediation. The 2 first problems requires written individual answers, while the last problem is addressed by an oral presentation by a group of 3-5 students. All 3 problems must be adequately answered. Weight: Each of the three thematic problems counts 1/3 of the final grade. pass/fail, no second examiner | ||||||||||||
| Organisation of Teaching | Summer course consiting of totally 3 weeks equally divided between distant learning based on submitted/uploaded course materials and questions followed by 1.5 weeks of intensive training at the university. | ||||||||||||
| Block Placement | Summer Course Week Structure: Outside schedule, Three last weeks in August (32-34) | ||||||||||||
| Language of Instruction | English | ||||||||||||
| Optional Prerequisites | Basic knowledge about chemistry, mathematics and soil science | ||||||||||||
| Mandatory Prerequisites | 250021 Course in Soil, Water and Plants (250021) or equivalent | ||||||||||||
| Restrictions | Maximum 25 students | ||||||||||||
| Course Content | |||||||||||||
| Thousands of soils in Denmark and other Nordic countries as well as globally are contaminated by heavy metals, hydrocarbons (oil, PAH, PBC etc.) and/or other toxic compounds originating from atmospheric deposition, metal mining and processing, oil extraction and use, agriculture, waste deposition and other human activities. As these contaminants pose a risk to human health and ecosystem functioning, the contaminated soils must be remediated. Several soil remediation techniques exist but this course will concentrate on giving the students comprehensive, state-of-the-art understanding and knowledge of potentials and limitations of the most important methods including phytoremediation, bioremediation and soil washing in relation to climatic conditions and soil type as well as source and type of contamination. The behavior of different contaminants in various soils and the influence of soil contamination on human health and ecosystem functioning leading to various soil and water quality criteria will be overviewed. Interactions between different contaminants and soil types, and the factors determining the interactions including contaminant origin and chemistry, soil composition and characteristics and climatic conditions will be outlined. The risk for adverse effects on human health and ecosystem deterioration by various soil contaminants will be shortly covered. Current soil and water quality criteria and their strengths and weaknesses will be discussed. The most important soil remediation methods including bioremediation, phytoremediation and soil washing will be presented and explained. Bioremediation is based on microbial degradation of organic contaminants and focus will be on degradation of various oil types (heating oil, jet fuel, diesel, crude oil) at the polluted site (in-situ) and the possibilities for stimulating degradation rate and efficiency. However, experience with microbial degradation of other organic aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons (e.g. PAH, PCB), hormones and pesticides will be examplified. Phytoremediation is in-situ remediation by means of plants and comprises phytoextraction and phytostabilization. By phytoextraction the contaminant, typically heavy metals in moderate concentrations, is extracted (taken up) by the plant and translocated to above-ground biomass, which is harvested and further treated, e.g. burnt. Phytostabilization is used to stabilize the site (soil) against wind and water erosion in order to prevent spreading of the pollution. The importance of plant tolerance to various pollutants as well as there capacity to take up the various contaminants and translocate the pollutants to above-ground biomass will be explained. Examples of plants able to tolerate and take up much higher pollutant concentration than other plants, so-called hyperaccumulators, will be presented. Soils that are too contaminated to be left in place, must be excavated and cleaned in a soil deposit (ex-situ). In the deposit, organic pollutants are typically removed by bioremediation, while heavy metals that are non-degradable must be removed. Cleaning of soils with high contents of heavy metals is often done by soil washing, where the soil is extracted by means of an aqueous solution containing a strong complexing agent. Typically polycarboxylic acids such as EDTA and NTA are used but focus will be on the possible replacement of such synthetic, rather expensive and toxic chemicals by cheap natural compounds such as soluble humic substances in order to promote environmentally friendly soil remediation. The course is also offered as a NOVA course linked to the NOVA network Soil and Society (SoilSoc), which is a Nordic cooperation on soil science in a broad sence aiming at creating new MSc and PhD courses that are too specialized for each of the countries to be viable. | |||||||||||||
| Teaching and learning Methods | |||||||||||||
| The teaching will be a mixture of distant learning and confrontation teaching at the university. During the first 1.5 course weeks, the students must acquainted with the course material and solve problems formulated by the teacher. In the last 1.5 weeks, where students will meet with the teacher at the university, a mixture of lectures, problem solving and excursions will be used. During this period, groups of 3-5 students must prepare a PowerPoint presentation on a given remediation problem/case. On the last course day, all groups must present their presentations and be active in discussions of the presentations of the other groups. | |||||||||||||
| Learning Outcome | |||||||||||||
| The overall goal of the course is to learn course participants main principles and the most important methods for management of contaminated soils with emphasis on how to clean and/or stabilize soils that are more or less contaminated by heavy metals, hydrocarbons (oil, PAH etc.) and/or other toxic compounds originating from various anthropogenic sources in different parts of the Nordic countries as well as other parts of the world. After completing the course, the students are expected to have acquired the following knowledge, skills and competences: .Knowledge: o Understand the importance of soil contamination in relation to human health and ecosystem functioning. o Describe the behavior of different heavy metals and organic pollutants in various soil types. o Outline importance and extent of soil pollution nationally and internationally. o Explain differences between remediation of soils contaminated by heavy metals and organic pollutants. o Explain potentials and limitations of various soil-cleaning methods both in-situ and ex-situ. o Understand influence of climate on remediation of contaminated soils. .Skills: o Suggest proper method(s) for remediation of a heavy metal-polluted soil depending on soil type and degree and kind of pollution. o Assess various methods for remediation of various soils contaminated by different organics under different climatic conditions. o Apply knowledge about remediation of polluted soils in general to manage specific pollutions. o Evaluate guidelines proposed by various bodies (authorities, consultants etc.) for remediation of specific kinds of pollution. .Competences: o Define/describe terms such as 'soil and water quality', 'soil washing', soil extraction', ´phytoremediation' and 'hyperaccumulators'. o Reflect on environmental and societal problems created by contaminated soils. o Cooperate in an international forum (group) about creation of an oral presentation about how to manage a specific remediation problem. | |||||||||||||
| Course Literature | |||||||||||||
| Borggaard, O.K. 2010. Remediation of Heavy Metal Polluted Soils. To be prepared. Handout notes/uploads of review papers/book excerpts/reports/cases on factors and processes involved in various aspects of soil contamination and on state-of-the-art remediation methods that can be used to remediate soils contaminated by heavy metals and/or organic pollutants under different climatic and soil conditions. | |||||||||||||
| Course Coordinator | |||||||||||||
| Ole K. Borggaard, okb@life.ku.dk, Department of Basic Sciences and Environment, Phone: 353-32419 | |||||||||||||
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