U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Super-fund Innovative Technology Evaluation of Pneumatic Fracturing ExtractionSM

Abstract

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in cooperation with Accutech Remedial Systems (ARS) and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), performed a field demonstration of Pneumatic Fracturing Extraction (PFE)SM for the removal of chlorinated-volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from vadose zones of low permeability. The demonstration was conducted in the fall of 1992 at an industrial park in Somerville, New Jersey, where removal of VOC contamination in shale bedrock was required to comply with New Jersey’s Environmental Cleanup Responsibility Act (ECRA). During the demonstration, airflow and contaminant concentrations were monitored to establish a database against which the developer’s claims about the technology were evaluated. The developer contended that PFE would increase extracted airfkiw rates from the subsurface formation by at least 100 percent and would increase the mass removal rate for the key contaminant, trichloroethene (TCE), by at least 50 percent. Also, during the demonstration...