The Possibilities of Permeation - Ground Remediation Made Easy

The more we build over brownfield sites, the more important proper ground remediation becomes. Keeping potentially polluted groundwater away is relatively easy, but when it comes to water, and other, vapours the process becomes a whole lot harder. Many vapours can permeate through even the most effective water barriers. And that's where Versaperm comes in.

Versaperm has introduced a simple and accurate way to measure the vapour permeability of any geomembrane against any and all of the numerous gasses and vapours required by UK and international law and practice. These include methane, hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide (CO2), water-vapour and a host of other gases and chemicals. Even radon can be tested if the relevant government licence to test a radioactive gas is held.

Unfortunately, all of the leeching gasses react differently to every type of material or liner and a product that is a highly effective barrier against one of them may virtually useless against another. For example PVC is around 25 times worse as a barrier to carbon dioxide than it is for nitrogen. The system can also measure these permeabilities across a range of temperatures.

Versaperm's vapour measuring system is extremely sensitive and can give results with Part Per Million (PPM) and sometimes even PPB accuracies. It is fast, highly automated and easy to use. The system can measure anything from thin films through to multi-layer and composite structures and even across joins in a barrier.

As well as designing and manufacturing the range of meters, the company offers a sample testing service and technical consultancy for companies that only require measurements on an occasional basis.