It was Einstein who once said that imagination is more important than knowledge. We at Triple E don’t imagine much, but we know that within our Natural Soil Improvement business unit we have developed a great deal of knowledge in the field of mycorrhiza and soil management. We have not developed all this knowledge alone. We have a network of great partners with whom we have been working for many years: NIOO-KNAW, SGI Compliance, Water Board Drents Overijsselse Delta, Grondslag, Hogeschool Zeeland, Paper Innovator, Bavaria. By the way, we are not everyone’s friends: mutual trust and reciprocity are central. We have learned that over the years.

Against this background, we are also extremely proud to have signed a collaboration agreement with the Westerdijk Institute this month. After all, this part of the KNAW is at the forefront worldwide when it comes to knowledge of fungi. The Westerdijk Institute stepped in halfway through the Fiber2Fiber project to investigate whether fungi break down PFAS. This is in addition to the research that sister institute NIOO has already conducted into the breakdown of asbestos.

The results presented on 15 December at the symposium ‘Breaking down pollution’ paint a hopeful picture for the future now we have a collaboration agreement with the Westerdijk Institute for long-term collaboration under the title ‘Breaking Down Complex Molecular Structures by means of Mycorrhiza and other Fungi’. It is therefore about breaking down environmentally harmful substances with the help of fungi. This, of course, further strengthens the basis of our knowledge building capacity under phytorefining as an innovative product. The video below shows how it works:

But the big trick is of course to convert the knowledge into products, and then also products that sell well. That is why it is good to know that this month we are also busy with the production of Brickz for the Twickel foundation. The reason for this large order was that the trees that were once fitted with Brickz in the context of a previous study developed remarkably better than the trees without Brickz.

Knowledge is power, so the saying goes. But the imagination is also a powerful tool. This is the case, for example, at Bavaria, where we are working on the realization of a phytore refinery with modules such as the production of Brickz, a mycoretum, the cultivation of trees and phytorefining with mycorrhiza and miscanthus. The attached images show what it will look like.

We also recently signed a cooperation agreement between Industriepark Kleefse Waard and Veolia to set up a phytorefinery here as well. Arnhem so. That could be a nice home base. With today’s knowledge, this should be possible and with the knowledge that we will develop in the coming years, it should be possible to contribute to solving complex pollution issues by means of phytorefining in even more places.

In short, anyone who wants to get to know us as weel as our partners: come to our congress and register via the link below: