Welcome to BIOREX new webpage!

The BIOREX project runs for three years with financial support from the Knowledge Foundation and our industrial partners; Nammo Vingåkersverken, Bofors Testcenter, Eriksson Patent AB, KCEM and Cesium AB.

Polluted Peace

With the support from SIDA, we are currently starting to build the important large scale project Polluted Peace.

Polluted Peace is a inter disciplinary project founded at Mälardalen University, in collaboration with our partner researchers at Örebro University, The Swedish Research Agency and KCEM (competence center for energetic materials). Other than that, the project has partners within the Swedish demil industry, environmental technology industry as well as foreign research groups in Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Georgia. The overall aim with the project is to develop methods to export knowledge and technology for identification and restoration of the resources. Specific aims are to:

· Perform inventories concerning societal issues, environmental risk assessments and estimation of resources and business potentials.
· Develop and modify environmental and demilitarization technology to be applicable in the proposed countries.

Read more about Polluted Peace

Micrbiological degradation of TNT in a bioreactor

The production, testing, use and disposal of high explosives have extensively contaminated the soil and water at a large number of sites. Several laboratory and field studies have indicated that explosives are toxic at relatively low amounts to a number of organisms, including humans. There is at the time being an urgent need for a simple, cheap and effective technique where explosive compounds in soil and sludge can be degraded in an ecologically sound manner. In the present study a two-step microbiological method was developed where explosive compounds were degraded under shifting anaerobic and aerobic conditions. The method was optimized in a small-scale bioreactor where TNT was mixed with soil, water and substrate and subject to continuous stirring. For the first 8 days anaerobic conditions were applied to the bioreactor and for the remaining 12 days aerobic conditions were applied. Preliminary results show that 75% of the TNT was degraded after four days. The conclusion from the study is that TNT is effectively degraded by the bioreactor technique, and the efficiency can probably be even more improved by certain modification measures.

Filtration of TNT and heavy metals by using pine bark

Pine bark is a low cost sorbent originating from the forest industry. In recent years, it has been found to show promise as an adsorbent for metals and organic substances in contaminated water. In a new study. an industrial effluent, collected from Nammo Vingåkersverken demilitarization factory, was diluted to form concentration ranges of contaminants and shaken with pine bark for 24 hours. Metals (e.g. Pb, Zn, Cd, As and Ni) and explosives, e.g. 2,4,6-trinitrotoluen, TNT, were analysed in the effluent. The aim of the experiment was twofold; firstly, it was to investigate whether metals are efficiently removed in the presence of explosives and secondly, if adsorption of explosive substances to pine bark was possible. It was found that metal uptake was possible in the presence of TNT and other explosive contaminants. The uptake of TNT was satisfactory with up to 80 % of the TNT adsorbed by pine bark. Further studies are, however, necessary before any recommendation to substitute active carbon for pine bark can be made.