What if the green transition started with what we can't see? From Brussels to the far corners of the globe, the team at Haemers Technologies is decontaminating soil, without turning it over, tearing everything down, or making a sound. Meet the company's founder, an engineer from Brussels.

Thierry Haemers is neither an activist nor an idealist: 'An engineer is someone who wants to change the world, who sees what's imperfect and what can be improved. And we're a group of engineers who see the world and its environmental state and wonder what we can do about it.' That's how he describes his team at Haemers Technologies, a Brussels-based company specialising in thermal soil remediation. 'I was in the field of the environment long before it became trendy,' he says. It's in Brussels, his home town, that he has chosen to root his company.

Circular technology, born in Brussels

When faced with contaminated soil, the traditional method is still to dig it up, transport it elsewhere and replace it, which is a linear, energy-consuming and destructive approach. At Haemers Technologies, the approach is circular. 'Soil is like a sponge. It absorbs pollutants and releases them when it rains, contaminating the groundwater. Our technology consists of heating the soil on site, evaporating the pollutants, capturing them and then burning them to heat the soil again', explains the company's founder.

This process, called ‘smart burn’, is based on a virtuous circle. 'For example, we recover heating oil, burn it in our own installations, and use this energy to continue heating the soil'. The result: effective remediation, without excavation or demolition, with soil that stays alive. Thierry Haemers explains: 'Imagine a sponge full of soap and water, for example. If you do nothing, you can pour as much water on it as you like, there will always be soap left in it. But if you put that sponge an oven at 110 °C, it will be completely clean. At that point, you'll have evaporated everything. That's pretty much what we do with our patented technology.'

So no heavy infrastructure, no trucks, no destruction. Just a precise, controlled technique that does the job, developed in Brussels and applied on sites all over the world. 'We invented this technology so that we could transfer it elsewhere too. Today, what makes me proud is seeing how many cubic metres of soil are treated every day, all over the world', he says.

Soil, the blind spot of the environment?

Most of the time, soil pollution is not photogenic: no dramatic smoke plumes, no spectacular visuals. For this committed entrepreneur, the subject remains largely unknown to the general public when the issue of ecological transition is raised. 'Yet soil contamination is like climate change: it's an inherited liability. We inherit sites contaminated by activities from 30 or 50 years ago.  We may not have caused the pollution, but it’s here, on our land, and we have a duty to act. Just because we’re not the direct culprits doesn’t mean we can pretend it’s not our problem,' he adds.

Some liabilities are heavier than others. In Vietnam for example, where the heritage of Agent Orange, a powerful herbicide used by the American army during the war, continues to contaminate the soil and threaten people's health decades later. 'Belgium was the first country to officially recognise the civilian victims. We've recently returned from a state visit to Vietnam, where the King and Queen devoted real attention to this problem. Haemers Technologies is actively involved: 'We are welcomed differently there because we bring real solutions to the lives of people who are affected. It's our responsibility to depollute their soil', stresses Thierry Haemers.

The benefits of soil remediation are substantial: environmentally, of course, but also economically, because contaminated soil blocks projects, threatens public health, prevents building and, above all, is expensive to ignore. "If a company wants to sell a building, but there's an old leaking reservoir on site, it can block the entire deal, because nobody wants to buy something polluted. Thanks to our solutions, in just two or three months the problem is solved, without having to demolish the building or excavate. It's a real game changer.'

The example of the Audi site in Forest speaks for itself: a vast area with major redevelopment potential, but where historic pollution complicates things. Haemers Technologies says it is ready to intervene, ‘without compromising the site's structure or slowing down its redevelopment.’

Environment and economy share the same soil

According to the CEO, and contrary to popular belief, it was the business community and not NGOs that were the first to call for legislation on soil contamination. 'In the 90s, I helped draft the Flemish decree, the first in the world on this subject. It wasn't an environmental requirement, but a request from employers. Clarity was needed to attract investors.'

Clear legislation creates a reassuring framework for real estate and industrial projects. 'The business and financial worlds need to know where they stand. Without well-defined regulations, they simply won't commit. Even today, Flanders is still ahead of the game. In Brussels, we're a little behind, but we're making progress.'

Thierry Haemers is also calling for a change of perspective: 'Why do we think it's normal for companies to grow thanks to defence, but not thanks to the environment? The environmental sector deserves to grow too. And for God's sake, we need to say it loud and clear!'

In short, while the ecological transition is often taking place before our very eyes, Haemers Technologies reminds us that it is also, and above all, taking place beneath our feet.

PFAS: the end of toxic eternity?

Haemers Technologies has just announced a world first: not only do they know how to extract PFAS from the soil (which they were already doing), but more importantly, they now know how to destroy them. ‘Until now, they were captured and stored elsewhere, which solved nothing. Now, we break them up and eliminate them, definitively’, Thierry Haemers sums up.

The challenge? Heating contaminated soil to very high temperatures to break down the molecule, rather than simply moving it. The test, carried out in Denmark with the regional authorities, has just been validated. And for the first time, a thermal decontamination technology can really put an end to these harmful compounds, which are resistant to everything... except Haemers Technologies.

PFAS – nicknamed ‘eternal pollutants’ – are everywhere. As ultra-resistant chemicals, they accumulate in soil, water and living organisms, resisting both time and treatment. Present in thousands of everyday objects, they have been quietly poisoning the environment for decades. But perhaps not for much longer.