Demonstration testing and evaluation of in situ soil heating. Revision 1, Demonstration system design

Abstract

Over the last nine years IIT Research Institute (IITRI) has been developing and testing the in situ heating and soil decontamination process for the remediation of soils containing hazardous organic contaminants. In this process the soil is heated in situ using electrical energy. The contaminants are removed from the soil due to enhanced vaporization, steam distillation and stripping. The vaporized contaminants, water vapor and air are recovered from the heated zone by means of a vacuum manifold system which collects gases from below surface as well as from the soil surface. A vapor barrier is used to prevent fugitive emissions of the contaminants and to control air infiltration to minimize dilution of the contaminant gases and vapors. The recovered gases and vapors are conveyed to an on site vapor treatment system for the clean up of the vent gases. Electrical energy is applied to the soil by forming an array of electrodes in the soil which are electrically interconnected and supplied with power. The electrodes are placed in drilled bore holes which are made through the contaminated zone. There are two versions of the in situ heating and soil treatment process: the f irst version is called the In Situ more » Radio Frequency (RF) Soil Decontamination Process and the second version is called the In Situ Electromagnetic (EM) Soil Decontamination Process. The first version, the RF Process is capable of heating the soil in a temperature range of 100{degrees} to 400{degrees}C. The soil temperature in the second version, the EM Process, is limited to the boiling point of water under native conditions. Thus the soil will be heated to a temperature of about 85{degrees} to 95{degrees}C. In this project IITRI will demonstrate the EM Process for in situ soil decontamination at K-25 Site due to the fact that most of the contaminants of concern are volatile organics which can be removed by heating the soil to a temperature range of 85{degrees} to 95{degrees}C. « less