Predicting hydrocarbon removal from thermally enhanced soil vapor extraction systems. 2. Field study

Area of Science:

• Environmental Engineering
• Geotechnical Engineering
• Chemical Engineering

Background:

• Soil contamination by semi-volatile organic chemicals (SVOCs) poses environmental risks.
• Traditional soil vapor extraction (SVE) may be limited in its effectiveness for certain contaminants.
• Thermal enhancement of SVE offers a potential method to improve contaminant removal rates.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effectiveness of a thermally enhanced soil vapor extraction (SVE) system for removing SVOCs in a field setting.
• To compare SVOC removal rate constants obtained from laboratory studies with those from field applications.
• To establish a predictive relationship between laboratory and field-scale SVOC removal rates.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a field study using a thermally enhanced SVE system to treat SVOC-contaminated soil.
• Collected data to calculate SVOC removal rates at various operational temperatures.
• Compared field-derived SVOC removal rate constants with those from a prior laboratory study using identical soil samples.

Main Results:

• Calculated SVOC removal rates at multiple temperatures during the field study.
• Established a linear log-log relationship between laboratory and field SVOC removal rate constants.
• Demonstrated the time-dependent reduction of SVOC concentrations during in-situ thermal SVE.

Conclusions:

• Laboratory-determined SVOC removal rate relationships can reliably estimate SVOC removal from in-situ field soil using thermally enhanced SVE.
• The study validates the use of laboratory data for predicting the performance of in-situ thermal remediation technologies.
• Thermally enhanced SVE is a viable and predictable method for remediating SVOC-contaminated sites.