Workshop and training session in Timisoara

Thursday, February 20th, 2020 the Research Institute for Renewable Energies in Timisoara (ICER) hosted a new workshop as an activity of the project “Forming of network for enhancing environmental protection from pollutants of mining cross border areas”, acronym NETMIN, eMS no. RORS-308, within the framework of the Interreg-IPA Cross-border Cooperation Romania-Serbia Programme. The participants, mainly students and young researchers, were familiarized with the complexity of real-life engagement for solving technical, medical and green technology aspects of decontaminating polluted soils.

Dr. eng.  Miroslav Grujic, from the Mining and Metallurgy Institute Bor (Serbia) presented the impact a century of copper mining produced on the soil in Bor area. Prof. MDSc. Daniel Duda-Seiman, from Victor Babes University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara discussed the aspects of human toxicity produced by exposure to heavy metals. In his presentation, Prof. Dr. Eng. Radu Şumălan from Banat University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine “King Mihai I of Romania” Timisoara argued on the challenges and opportunities of using phytoremediation of polluted soils for bioenergy production.

The workshop was followed by a training session on using state-of-art apparatuses and methods for the analysis of soils and testing phytoremedial solutions on actual lots of samples collected from the field in the target areas. Experts from Politehnica University Timisoara – Prof. Dr. Eng. Adina Negrea, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eng. Mihaela Ciopec and Ph.D. student Eng. Oana Buriac, research assistant – presented the laboratories and initiated the participants in employing spectrometric techniques for the analysis of water, soil and plant samples: Atomic Spectrometry (AS), X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy (XRF) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (EDX).

During the final discussions and conclusion, the project manager, Assoc. Prof. dr. eng. Cornelia Muntean presented the next steps in implementing the project NETMIN, eMS nr. RORS-308 and handed out diplomas to the participants, attesting the the participation in the training session in the field of soil pollution determination.