Reports funded by:
The Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP)

Authors:
Jennifer Triplett Kingston, Ph.D., Haley & Aldrich, Paul R. Dahlen and Paul C. Johnson, Arizona State University; Eric Foote and Shane Williams, Battelle Memorial Institute

Executive summary:

In-situ thermal soil and aquifer remediation technologies (e.g., electrical resistance heating, conductive heating, steam-based heating, etc.) have undergone rapid development and application in recent years. These technologies offer the promise of more rapid and thorough treatment of non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) source zones; however, their field-scale application has not been well-documented in the technical literature.

In this project, the performance of thermal technologies for DNAPL source zone remediation was assessed with particular emphasis on post-treatment groundwater quality and mass discharge (sometimes referred to as “mass flux”). This critical evaluation involved an empirical analysis of available design and operating information and performance results from pilot- and full-scale applications to see what experiences to-date have been. This was supplemented with post-treatment field sampling at selected sites to fill data gaps. This project was complementary to, and made use of knowledge gained from other ESTCP and SERDP projects that were looking at relationships between DNAPL architecture, treatment effectiveness, and groundwater mass discharge (flux).

The results of this study are summarized in a set of summary tables (spreadsheet-based tables) linking this information to five generalized geologic scenarios. The Summary Tables can be used by practitioners, regulators, and site owners to anticipate the likely performance of thermal-based DNAPL treatment technologies at their sites. The tables provide a tool where performance experience and theoretical bounds on performance expectations are linked to a small number of generalized geologic scenario site descriptors.

Click here to download the final report from the ESTCP website (12.5 MB PDF download).

Click here to download the State of the Practice report from the ESTCP website (1.5 MB PDF download).

Click here to contact the author.

<< Back to Publications & Presentations