Full-scale soil remediation has begun in Lamor’s Kuwaiti projects

The joint venture of Lamor and Khalid Ali Al-Kharafi & Bros. Co., a local construction company, is responsible for two projects consisting of the planning and implementation of soil remediation in two separate areas. The work includes the development of the optimal solution, the construction of treatment facilities, and the treatment and restoration of oil-polluted soil. The projects began in 2021 and the biological remediation in early 2023.

Construction of the soil washing plants, designed and built by the Northern Ireland headquartered CDE Group, started in the second quarter of 2023. The soil washing facility in the North was commissioned in December 2023, followed by the Southern facility, which has just started operations.

The plant design takes into account the sustainability aspects necessary to minimise environmental impacts as well as to reduce operating costs. For instance, the water used for the treatment origins from wastewater plants in Kuwait, and the plant itself is designed to recycle up to 70% of the water.

“CDE’s vision is to create our best world, a ton at a time. With both plants now operational, we are realising that vision in Kuwait. We have begun operator training and are gearing up to hand this project over to the joint venture of Lamor and Khalid Ali Al-Kharafi & Bros. Co.”, says Ruchin Garg, Regional Manager of CDE Middle East & Africa. “CDE extends its gratitude to the entire team for their exemplary dedication to safety, as well as our valued partners and stakeholders for their ongoing support. The scale and ambition of this remediation programme cannot be understated. It is a true test of engineering.”

“We are happy to have all processes up and running now. Legacy soil pollution is an enormous global problem. Our deep expertise and experience in soil remediation help provide right solutions everywhere, especially in demanding conditions”, says Manel Fernandez, Lamor’ Project Director in Kuwait. “Remediation brings life back to once oil-polluted soil.”

Kuwait soil cleaning is an enormous joint undertaking

In Kuwait, the UN funds the clean-up of a 114 square kilometre area with about 26 million cubic meters of oil-contaminated soil. The pollution is a consequence of the Gulf War, when hundreds of oil wells were torched in Kuwait, causing the world's largest anthropogenic oil spill. The UN has awarded USD 3 billion for soil remediation activities in the area.

The treatment technologies consist of both biological cleanup in windrows, i.e. bioremediation, for soils with lower petrochemical contamination, and mechanical soil washing for contaminated soil with a higher, i.e. over 5 percent hydrocarbon content.

During the first nine months of operation in 2023, Lamor’s bioremediation solutions cleaned and restored over 1.5 million tonnes of soil, which is about 33,000 truckloads. The soil washing facilities will annually treat an additional 728,000 tonnes of contaminated soil.

Further information

Johan Grön, CEO, Lamor Corporation Plc
tel. +358 40 5464186, johan.gron@lamor.com

Manel Fernandez, Project Director, Lamor
manel.fernandez@lamor.com

Lamor in brief

Lamor is one of the world’s leading providers of environmental solutions. For four decades, we have worked to clean up and prevent environmental incidents on land and at sea.

Environmental protection, soil remediation and material recycling: Our innovative technologies, services and tailored solutions, ranging from oil spill response, waste management and water treatment to soil remediation and plastic recycling, benefit customers and environments all over the world.

We are capable of vast and fast operations thanks to our connected ecosystem of local partners, steered by our experts. We have over 600 employees in more than 20 countries. In 2023, our turnover was 123 million euros. Lamor's share is listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki (ticker: LAMOR). Further information: www.lamor.com