Dr Colin Hills

Dr Colin Hills is a University Reader and Director of the Centre for Contaminated Land Remediation at the University of Greenwich. He has been actively involved in stabilisation/solidification (s/s) Research and development for more than 25 years. His work includes national guidance on s/s of contaminated soil for the Environment Agency (England and Wales), and the development of novel s/s systems. He has received a number of national prizes, including the 2006 IChemE Green Chemical Technology Award and the 2008 Times HE Award for his outstanding contribution to Innovation and Technology, through his work on using CO2 gas to treat contaminated soil and waste.

Background

Dr Hills studied Geology (BSc) and Industrial Petrology (MSc) at Queen Mary College, London. His PhD (Imperial College) in environmental engineering followed a period working as a field geologist in the Middle East and West Africa (Stanger, Intersite, Nigeria Dredging and Marine), and in process technology and engineering for Redland (now Lafarge). Dr Hills joined the University of Greenwich as a Senior Research Fellow in 1998, and was appointed Reader in 2002.

Responsibilities within the university

Teaching and administrative activities

Dr Hills is Programme Leader for Master's by Research (Science) and Course co-ordinator for Practical Science Skills for Environmental Scientists and Geographers and (L1) and Environmental Management (L2). Both courses are designed to teach fundamental field and laboratory skills and provide an awareness of the importance and impact of environmental science on our lives and wellbeing.

Dr Hills is Postgraduate Tutor for the School of Science and has recently been appointed as the Schools Overseas Liaison Officer.

MPhil/PhD supervision

Dauda Abdulkadiri
Biola Kazeem Badmos
Jamila Maria Abd El-Hadi

Current research

Dr Colin Hills' current research interests include the use of carbon dioxide gas to treat soil and waste through accelerated carbonation, the production of construction materials from waste, formulation of novel cement systems and the diversion of waste from landfill.

The valorisation of waste streams and their beneficial re-use is an important area of his research and he is currently working with BP and other companies in this respect.
Dr Hills is a member of the School of Science Environment and Sustainability Research Cluster.

Passify project – Lead Partner University of Greenwich

The Passify project (Performance Assessment of Stabilised/Solidified Waste Forms) investigated the long-term effectiveness of stabilisation/solidification (s/s) of contaminated soil based on:

• The extraction of field samples taken from full-scale application of s/s technology in the USA, France and UK
• The identification of risk indicators in a detailed program of chemical, physical and microstructural testing

The core partners were the University of Greenwich, University of New Hampshire and INERTEC. CLA:IRE, The Welsh Assembly, the PCA, SITA Environmental Trust and Environmental Geotechnics Ltd. were key funding agencies supporting the investigation.

The US Environmental Protection Agency, The Environment Agency and ADEME were key partners in allowing remediated contaminated sites to be invasively investigated. The University of Birmingham, University of Cranfield, The Royal Engineers.

Passify was awarded Eureka Status (S!3308), by the European Union.

The following main tasks were carried out including on samples taken from Superfund sites in the USA:

• Clarification of the history of use of each site
• Determining site characteristics and identifying pollutant pathways
• Sampling and performance testing
• Long term behaviour studies (ENV 12920)
• Results interpretation, reporting and dissemination

External activities

Dr Hills is a member of the EPSRC Peer review panel (2000-present) and the European Science Foundation Review Panel (2006-present). He is a past Chairman of the Cement and Concrete Group of the Institute of Materials, and a long-standing member of ISCOWA and the Society of Chemical Industries.

Recently, Dr Hills has served as a member of the scientific committee on a number of international conferences, including ACEME 2006-2010, WASCON and was Co-Chair of the International Stabilisation/Solidification Technology Forum held in Canada in June 2010.

As well as serving as a member of the editorial staff of Communications in Waste Management Dr Hills has been a Guest Editor for the International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management. He is a regular reviewer for a number of International Journals including: Environmental Science and Technology, Waste Management, Journal of Hazardous Materials and Waste and Resource Management

Awards and prizes

In September 2006, Dr Hills was awarded the 2006 Green Chemistry Prize (IChemE/Chemistry Innovation KTN) in his role as one of the Founder Directors of Carbon8 Systems Ltd., the University of Greenwich spinout company. Carbon8 Systems won both the Kent Innovation Challenge and the Kent Environment Awards in 2007.

In 2008, Carbon8 Systems was the National Winner of the Shell Springboard Challenge (2008) with a prize of £40k. Later this year Dr Hills received the Times Higher Award for his Outstanding Contribution to Innovation and Technology.

Recent publications

2010 International Stabilisation/Solidification Technology Forum. Editors. Craig B Lake and Colin D Hills. Papers from the International Stabilisation/Solidification Technology Forum held at Cape Breton University, Sydney, N.S. June 14-18th 2010 ISBN 978-7703-0026-5 (2010).

A., Antemir, C.D. Hills, P.J. Carey, Gardner, K.H. and Crumbie, A.K. Long-term Performance of Aged Waste Forms Treated by Stabilisation/Solidification. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 181 (1-3) : pp 65–73 (2010).

Antemir, A., Hills, C.D., Carey, P.J., Magnie, M-C., Polettini, A. Field Investigation of a 4-year old Stabilised/solidified and Accelerated Carbonated Contaminated Soil, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 181 (1-3) pp. 543–555 (2010).

Antemir A, Hills C.D, Carey P.J, Gardner K.H, Bates ER, Crumbie A.K., Long-term Performance of Aged Waste Forms Treated by stabilization/Solidification 181(1-3) pp. 65–73 (2010).

Gunning, P., Hills, C.D. and Carey, P.J. Accelerated Carbonation Treatment of Industrial Waste, Journal of Waste Management, 6, pp. 1081–90 (2010).

Gunning, P., Hills, C.D. and Carey, P.J. Production of Lightweight Aggregates from Waste and Carbon Dioxide. Waste Management, 29 (10), pp. 2722–2728 (2009).

Quanyuan Chen, Zhou Luo, Colin Hills, Gang Xue and Mark Tyrer, Precipitation of Heavy Metals from Wastewater using Simulated Flue Gas: Sequent Additions of Fly Ash, Lime and Carbon Dioxide. Water Research, 43, 10, pp 2605–2614 (2009).

Chen, Q.Y., Tyrer, M., Hills, C.D., P. Carey, P. Immobilisation Mechanism of Heavy Metals in Cement-based Solidification/stabilisation, Waste Management, 29, 1 pp. 390–403 (2009).

Chen, Q.Y., Ke, Y., Zhang, L., Tyrer, M., Hills, C.D and Xue, G. Application of Accelerated Carbonation with a Combination of Na2CO3 and CO2 in Cement-based Solidification/stabilization of Heavy Metal-bearing Sediment. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 166, 1, pp 421–427 (2009).

Chen, Q.Y., Zhang, L., Ke, Y., Hills, C.D and Kang, Y., Influence of Carbonation on the Acid Neutralization Capacity of Cements and Cement-solidified/stabilized Electroplating Sludge. Chemosphere, 74, 6, pp. 758–764 (2009).