Download our Core Competencies chart.

Reduction & Recycling

All UK-based businesses are affected by UK environmental policy.

We work in conjunction with businesses in reducing waste. This makes perfect financial sense and can result in the use of less raw materials. Our experienced advisors can help reduce your waste output and energy usage.

ETCIC provides advice on current and foreseeable waste regulations relevant to your specific business.

There are now stiff financial incentives for businesses to send less waste to landfill, both by decreasing waste production and by increasing recycling rates. ETCIC can address waste and recycling issues, providing your business with direct commercial benefits.

Benefits that ETCIC can provide on waste reduction and recycling include:

• Regulations in plain English
• Potential savings in waste & energy
• Customised advice
• Training
• Analytical results - with explanations
• Access to technological 'know-how'

Composting

The pressures on UK businesses mean that whenever possible, composting becomes a viable alternative.

In conjunction with waste reduction, increasing amounts of organic wastes will need to be diverted from landfill in the future.

Composting is a viable technology to treat and recycle such organic waste. Composting provides one of the most sustainable solutions to the problem of the amount of biodegradable waste produced in the UK.

ETCIC can help your business benefit from composting technologies, providing advice and composting solutions with direct business benefits.

Work carried out within ETCIC has investigated many areas to ensure optimisation of the compost process and quality of the resultant compost material.

Benefits that ETCIC can provide on composting include:

• Reliable, low-maintenance waste disposal solution
• Cost-effective alternative to Landfill
• Utilisation of resulting compost material
• Point-of-Source application
• Analytical Results – With Explanations
• Low energy, low cost systems

Pathogen Detection

It is vitally important that organisms in the environment that may affect human health are detected.

Ongoing work at ETCIC involves the use and development of advanced techniques to detect their presence in a wide range of business situations.

Using a new generation of molecular based techniques, pathogens in any environment can be detected faster and acted upon immediately.

This approach is vital in applications such as food production, whilst becoming increasingly important in other areas, such as bathing waters or at composting sites.

The team at ETCIC has experience in the development of micro-scale systems for the detection of waterborne pathogens. These ‘chip’ based systems benefit from the sensitive and specific nature of DNA and, due to their small nature, they are particularly suited to usage in the field.

Benefits that ETCIC can provide on pathogen detection include:

• Fast identification of wide-ranging pathogens
• Preventative application eliminates risk to human health
• Applications in food, environmental and related areas
• Improved manufacturing approaches and controlled environments
• Highly cost-effective feedback in health critical areas

Lab-on-a-Chip

It is vital that any business detects contaminants as early as possible.

ETCIC has developed its "Lab-on-a-Chip" technology, a system which promises point-of-source monitoring of liquid and gaseous streams on a cost-effective basis.

Using micro-analytical techniques, the chip creates fast acting systems with low reagent volumes, which are capable of being deployed in the field in real business environments.

Enclosed in a 150mm cube container, the chip can determine the concentration of specific pollutants at a very high sensitivity, providing immediate feedback to businesses on any pollutant levels. This enables fast response where necessary. The system provides in situ analytical capabilities, at low cost and with negligible impact on surrounding environment from reagents.

Other portable detection methods can also be used with "Lab-on-a-Chip" devices including electrochemistry, UV absorption and fluorescence.

Benefits that ETCIC’s "Lab-on-a-Chip" can provide include:

• Low Cost
• Multiple Installation with Redundancy
• Field Installation
• Wide Ranging Compound Detection
• On-Line Knowledge Transferal
• No Reagent Disposal

Compliance & Beyond

A whole range of environmental regulations now affects businesses. The requirement for your business to be good neighbours and sound custodians of the environment is only set to increase.

As a business owner or operator, keeping pace with the changes in environmental policies and regulations is a major challenge.

We can take on the burden of these issues for your business. We also have a track record of providing appropriate responses and anticipating future environmental implications. ETCIC can provide guidance, help you address shortfalls in performance and respond strategically to these environmental challenges.

ETCIC’s specialist team monitor current regulations and anticipate future trends. We can access compliance with waste and energy regulations for any business, operating in any sector.

Our services range from short-term consultancy to bespoke research. We also provide custom-designed training packages.

With new regulations coming into effect within the next three years, ETCIC is ideally positioned to interpret these and provide real business-focused solutions.

Benefits that ETCIC can provide on compliance include:

• Regulations in plain English
• Custom advice
• Training
• Access to technological know-how and solutions
• Ongoing business relationships
• Savings in waste and energy

R&D Resources

ETCIC is a formidable source of knowledge, skills and capital-intensive supporting equipment on a whole range of environmental technologies.

We aim to ensure that this resource is fully used, promoting a shift towards high sustainability and environmental performance for business.

We should be your first contact for any environmental issue facing your commercial operations. We provide guidance, support and advice on legislation affecting your business, waste reduction, waste disposal and alternative energy sourcing.

ETCIC's leading edge facilities include:

• Protection and Improvement
• Energy Sourcing
• Strategies and Dynamics
• Sustainable Seas

Total Environment Simulator (TES)

ETCIC has access to a key resource in the Total Environment Simulator (TES). This is an experimental facility designed for modelling the dynamics of fluid and sediment transfer under a wide range of environmental conditions.

TES can make a real commercial impact, particularly in the area of sustainable energy research and development.

Being able to simulate rivers, streams and other waterways, TES enables full modelling in a controlled environment. Companies are already using this technology and commercial designs so far include design optimisation of tidal power equipment.

The simulator can also be used for modelling of dispersion of materials into waterways, simulating the flow of these into water, whereby these materials may then settle into sediment. This has a number of obvious environmental applications, including the design of effective solutions to a wide variety of material dispersion problems.

Other designs facilitated by TES include a range of situations where water is involved, as many different, real life water-related environments can be simulated a controlled area. This has many commercial applications where water and water flow is a key design feature.