Objectives
Soil and groundwater contamination has been one of serious social problems not only in developing countries, but also in industrially developed countries. To solve this problem, advanced and systematic researches that focus on developing technologies associated with investigation and characterization of different kinds of contamination, remediation of and/or countermeasures to contamination, risk assessment and risk management are strategically performed at the Geo-Environmental Risk Research Group, AIST.
Research findings are used to develop intellectual and/or knowledge infrastructure such as maps, guidelines and standards, and are simultaneously applied to different kinds of engineering practice such as geological disposal of hazardous wastes, management of abandoned mines, and support to recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake. Contributions to international society are devoted through technical training and technical support to developing countries, international collaborations and development of international standards.
Research Topics
- Characterization of toxicity and concentration of different kinds of contaminant using luminescent bacteria
- Elucidating mechanisms accelerating bioremediation
- Evaluation of the impact of soil on microbial dechlorination of chloroethenes
- 3 dimensional, multicomponent, multiphase simulation of mass transport in geo-environment
- Screening survey and rapid mapping of heavy metal contamination
- Identification of pollution sources (naturally occurring or artificial pollution)
- Testing low-permeability materials with high precision
- Diffusion tests for soils or rock samples
- Column tests under oxidative or reductive conditions
- Leaching test for lead glass
- Geoinformatics
- Test methods for soil contamination assessment
- Other technologies for characterizing the existing form, transportation behavior of contaminants in geo-environments.
- Application of bioremediation technology to low permeable contaminated ground
- Identification of microorganisms degrading volatile organic compounds using stable isotope probe
- Development of integrated anaerobic-aerobic biodegradation of multiple contaminants
