Inorganic and organic pollutants

The field of inorganic geochemistry at the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources generally concerns the determination of inorganic substances in geological materials such as rocks, ores, soils, sediments and water. At the same time, however, mineral and energy resources such as ores and clays, and industrial residues, former mining sites and materials from mineral treatment are investigated using modern analytical methods.

An important topic is the development and application of special methods to describe the mobility of harmful substances, e.g. the procedures for determining the arsenic and antimony species in contaminated mining sites and in water from spoil heaps.

The field of organic geochemistry investigates the presence of organic materials and harmful substances such as petroleum hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons, organic halides and other persistent organic compounds in various geological materials. A further important subject is the characterisation with modern analytical methods of energy resources such as petroleum, coal and peat.