From characterization of sediment to full scale treatment by wet particle separation

Contaminated sediments represent a significant environmental problem in the Netherlands. Dutch policy aims on reusing the sand in the contaminated sediments. The reusable sand can be separated from the sediment by utilizing wet particle separation techniques. The quality and the quantity of the recovered sand product determines whether the application of wet particle separation is economically feasible. Therefore it is important to be able to predict the results of full scale sediment treatment. These predictions can be obtained by thoroughly characterizing the specific contaminated sediment. In the last years several characterization methods have been developed. This paper presents four cases in which the results of the TDG-test and the Fingerprint are compared with results of the full scale treatment of contaminated sediments. The two main factors: sand quality and the quantity of fine grained fraction remaining are well predicted in all four cases. Therefore the conclusion is that both the TDG-test and the Fingerprint are able to predict whether full scale treatment is feasible.