1. Concawe (CONservation of Clean Air and Water in Europe)
2. EU - FP6 - Integrated project ECODIS (Dynamic Sensing of Chemical Pollution Disasters and Predictive Modelling of Their Spread and Ecological Impact)

To better understand bioaccumulation of vHOCs and to develop chemical methods for predicting bioavailability/bioaccumulation potential of these chemicals.

• Determine bioaccumulation of HOCs under field conditions and evaluate several chemical methods for predicting this process;
• Investigate and explain the so-called hydrophobicity cut-off for a large set of HOCs (PAHs, PCBs, chlorobenzenes, and petroleum hydrocarbons);
• Determine the effects of temperature and lipid composition on bioaccumulation of HOCs;
• Develop methods for assessing the bioaccumulation potential of vHOCs, based on artificial (biomimicking) phases (e.g., liposomes, organism homogenates).

Based on their hydrophobicity, vHOCs are expected to accumulate in animal lipids. Hence, quantification of the chemicals' bioaccumulation potential is required for environmental risk assessment. However, the determination of bioaccumulation factors for vHOCs is problematic and prone to experimental artifacts, due to limited maximum test durations and/or phase separation issues. In this project we investigate the feasibility of alternative methods for the prediction of actual vHOC bioaccumulation, as well as several mechanistic aspects of the process (dependence on hydrophobicity, temperature, and lipid composition). Experiments are performed both in the lab and in the field.

Improving risk assessment of petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated sediments and soils (Barry Muijs).