The chances are that if you’re reading this post then you know what Thermal Desorption is. In brief, heat treatment of organic contaminants (e.g. oil) results in the contaminants volatilising (desorbing). When it comes to soils, desorbed organics are much easier to extract than sorbed contaminants.
There are 3 main features of thermal desorption in my opinion-
- The thermal desorption process can be measured to a relatively high degree. Therefore calculating costs and time frames can be done to give cost certainties with low risks.
- ‘Contaminants’ can be recovered for re-use. This can be as a product for refining, or recycled directly as an energy source both of which give a return on the investment.
- Relatively short time frame. When it comes to treating soils, thermal is at the top end of the list for speed of treatment.
Thermal desorption has been around for a long time in the industry and can be applied both in-situ and ex-situ to great effect.
2021
Soil remediation guide
Approaching soil remediation without any prior knowledge can be difficult and uncomfortable at times, especially when it can potentially be very costly. This free eBook will help you understand the whats, the whys and the hows of soil remediation in the simplest terms.