TenCate GeoClean®, an oil-depolluting aquatextile membrane

The new TenCate GeoClean® innovation, the result of 10 years of R&D, is an oil-depolluting aquatextile with a unique structure that naturally removes hydrocarbons from runoff water and allows clean water to infiltrate locally into the soil without polluting it.

Easily and quickly installed under permeable pavements and car parks, in roadside ditches or infiltration basins, under construction site platforms and railway tracks, TenCate GeoClean® purifies water naturally, durably and without any maintenance.

TenCate GeoClean® is a major breakthrough for the environment!

The decisive challenge of combating water pollution by hydrocarbons
The management of water resources (1) is one of the fundamental challenges of sustainable development. From a quantitative point of view: TenCate Geosynthetics wishes to encourage the design of infrastructure that favors continuous, on-site infiltration of rainwater into the soil. From a qualitative point of view: it is also necessary to ensure that water infiltrates without polluting the soil, the primary source of pollution being hydrocarbon leaks deposited on surfaces by all means of transport.

As TenCate Geosynthetics points out, between 1 and 5 kg of hydrocarbons are spilled/released daily on every kilometer of heavily trafficked road. While 30% are degraded above ground through a natural process, 70% infiltrate and contaminate the soil, groundwater and aquifers... An alarming result when one knows that a single kilo of these substances can contaminate up to 1 million liters of natural water!
It is therefore by promoting a polluted water treatment process that is safe, ecological, economical, easy to apply, maintenance-free and durable that TenCate Geosynthetics devised its latest innovation, TenCate GeoClean®.

TenCate GeoClean®, a breakthrough innovation...
TenCate GeoClean® is an oil-depolluting aquatextile with a two-layer structure that retains and then naturally biodegrades hydrocarbons (more broadly, engine oils, lubricating oils and hydraulic circuit oils) present in runoff water.

The process is both very simple and ingenious, as Nicolas Laidié, Marketing Manager Europe, explains: ?In the case of diffuse pollution (small, regular oil deposits), the blue upper layer of TenCate GeoClean®, made of adsorbent oleophilic filaments, literally captures and traps the hydrocarbons. A natural growth activator promotes the development of a population of microorganisms capable of naturally and gradually degrading the trapped hydrocarbons over time, and doing so permanently.? No maintenance is required throughout the service life of the infrastructure under normal conditions of use.

In the case of a larger accidental pollution, the excess oil will be stored in the lower, white layer of the aquatextile, where it will also be gradually degraded. And Nicolas Laidié adds: ?The abundance of food and favorable living conditions will once again lead to the development of this oil-depolluting ecosystem in the white layer.?

It should be emphasized that TenCate GeoClean® offers a high hydrocarbon retention capacity (> 99,9%), even in the event of extreme rainfall (65 mm/h). TenCate GeoClean® has very high permeability, allowing large volumes of water to infiltrate, and thus offers another "safety" advantage.TenCate GeoClean® Crystal potentially degrades 100 g of oil/m²/year after one year of activity under normal conditions. This corresponds to approximately 10 times the amount of diffuse hydrocarbon pollution generated on car parks (10 g/m²/year).

As one of the most economical and nature-friendly water quality management solutions, TenCate GeoClean® is installed close to pollution sources, under the permeable wearing course or on the verges of trafficked surfaces, so that from the moment it is put in place and in all circumstances, it purifies water locally, autonomously, continuously and without any maintenance. The water thus cleaned is naturally returned to underground networks.

Launched in November 2018
The TenCate GeoClean® range will comprise 3 products according to the level of needs of the different sites (the type of application for a car park, a motorway or an airport, for example, obviously differs): TenCate GeoClean® Origin, TenCate GeoClean® Crystal and TenCate GeoClean® Pure.
Finally, attentive to supporting project managers and public works contractors, to bring them ever more ease, speed and competitiveness, it should be mentioned that TenCate Geosynthetics offers sizing assistance on each site, in order to determine the most suitable TenCate GeoClean® aquatextile.