technology
The EcoStable Technologies product lines include the SedFirst and SandFirst series. SedFirst is intended for sediment remediation applications, and SandFirst is for shoreline stabilization.
All of our formulations consist of natural, non-toxic, food-grade, and biodegradable ingredients. The formulations, dosages and application methods are optimized based on site characteristics, stabilization and project objectives. The products’ formulations are composed of Protein-Polysaccharide Biopolymers (PPBs) which promote cohesion between sand and sediment particles. The cohesion improves performance by reducing erosion, and increasing stability and uniformity.
Why They Are Important
Why Is SandFirst Important?
A bountiful beachfront not only adds great value to local tourism, but the presence of sand serves to mitigate damage to coastal property. In general, taxpayers, state governments, and the federal government spend millions of dollars per re-nourishment cycle. If we do not find a way to break, or at least slow the erosion cycles, we will continue to bear the negative financial, environmental, and social impacts of beach erosion. In the absence of sustainable alternatives to beach re-nourishment, efforts have to be made to improve sand retention. SandFirst is a technology that can significantly improve sand retention through cohesion enhancement.
Why Is SedFirst Important?
Sediment cap erosion is well documented for non-cohesive granular materials that constitute various caps and for material used to armor caps. The potential impacts of cap placement include an increase in turbidity due to suspended sediment and amendments in the water column and a destabilization of the underlying sediment, causing slope failure and resuspension of the contaminated sediment. Meeting long-term cap performance goals depends on the stability of the cap for its design life. The caps must withstand erosive forces from the overlying water body and are typically designed to resist erosion during expected flow events and to resist erosional forces from propeller wash and tidal pumping. SedFirst is a technology that can increase cap erosion resistance through sand cohesion enhancement. It can also reduce sediment resuspension during dredging operations if the sediment can be pre-treated.
Isolation cap amendments such as activated carbon (AC) must be placed on sediment without significant losses in the water column. Unfortunately, placement of AC, and powdered activated carbon (PAC) in particular, is challenging due to the near neutral buoyancy of the material. Thus, there is a need for treatments or methods that can help render sand-based isolation capping more stable and easier to implement in order to increase the applicability of capping technology. SedFirst can effectively place sand cap amendments by mitigating amendment dispersion in the water column.
