A Sustainable Mineral Barrier Option

Mineral barriers are extensively used in various applications to either protect the environment from hazardous substances or to simply maintain water in certain areas. Due to the nature of the application there are different requirements that the applied lining system has to meet. A higher sealing performance and a high capability to cope with the surrounding environment generally allow for a longer functional lifetime. For most applications this is a necessity to achieve the ultimate goal of a sustainable environment and thus to save natural resources as well as to protect the environment. The most commonly used mineral barriers are Compacted Clay Liners (CCL), Bentonite Enriched Soils (BES) and Geosynthetic Clay Liners (GCL) offering individual advantages and disadvantages. When used under the right circumstances all systems can achieve good results, however all sealing systems have certain limitations. New concepts have been developed to improve the properties of the different lining systems in order to enable them to better cope with any occurring detrimental effects. On Trisoplast®, as one of these modified barriers, intensive independent testing has proven that the performance of the mineral material can be significantly improved by making use of a special bentonite-polymer technique.