National Laboratory Service/Environment Agency (NLS/EA) and Crown Bio exhibited at a joint stand at the Small Sites in the UK: The scale of the problem conference, which was held at the MCC Mayfair Conference Centre in London, on the 4th March 2008. The event was organized by Brownfield Briefing.

Crown Bio were invited to give a joint presentation at the ‘Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainability’ Conference (EIC) in Naples, Florida, on Nov 7–9, 2007.

Present at the meeting were senior EPA Executives, important USA Brownfield experts and Project Directors and members of Dept. of Energy. The German contingent was similarly made up of leading German Brownfield site Company Executives and National Representatives from Industrial and Environmental sectors.

Crown Bio's (CBT) new biosensor device, the SS Tester^TM (SST^TM) developed for the rapid detection of contaminants in soil (primarily PAHs), has now completed Beta testing and is being prepared for market launch.

The SST^TM is a unique tool developed to provide a low cost, on-site, testing regime to identify PAHs (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons) and PABs (Poly Aromatic Benzenes), which are the most common carcinogenic (cancer-causing) soil pollutants found at Brownfield sites.

Whilst the biotechnology behind the SST^TM is well established, the method of extraction of contaminants from the soil is novel and has enabled the development of a comprehensive screening tool which is unique to the market.

An initial cooperation earlier this year between CBT and LGC (formerly the Laboratory of Government Chemist) under the DTI's Measurement for Innovators programme, enabled CBT to obtain expert advice from LGC on the verification of the SST^TM and its consumables. CBT, as a result, gained a better understanding of the requirements for evaluation and corroboration of their product with the eventual aim to demonstrate its application in the field.

This initial study led to the secondment of two Scientific Researchers from CBT, to work at LGC for a 2-week period, in order to practically evaluate the SST^TM.

The primary aim of the secondment was to compare extraction efficiencies of the patented CBT extraction system with LGC's laboratory-based standard — two very different systems of extraction of PAHs from soil. Results from preliminary experiments to check compatibility of the different solvents with Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE) and Gas Chromatography (GC) showed remarkable similarity. A LGC certified reference soil (LGC 6115) containing known concentrations of PAHs was used throughout the study. The extracts obtained, when run on GC, showed extremely good correlation between the two extraction systems.

Experiments with ‘fresh' natural soils, as against the Certified Reference Materials (CRMs), appeared to highlight the advantage of the CBT extraction technology in that results consistently showed a better recovery of potential contaminants with the number of different soil samples tested.

Finally, comparing the chemical (GC) results with the toxicity data obtained with the SST^TM, a very good correlation was again observed. A rise in toxicity was positively demonstrated (with the SST^TM) with increasing concentrations of known amount of the CRMs containing PAHs.

All in all a very successful cooperative study!!