Bio-dielectric soil decontamination

Abstract

Soils, polluted with organic contaminants, can be cleaned using dielectric heating, by volatilisation of the contaminants. Soil temperatures needed with this method are in general quite high, between 90 and 160oC, leading to relative high electric energy demands and subsequently high energy costs. To lower the costs of energy, the feasibility of combining dielectric heating with biological decontamination was investigated. The cleaning temperatures are then far below the temperatures needed for volatilisation, resulting in lower energy costs. The purpose of dielectric heating is to raise the soil temperature to such a level that the activity of the microorganisms, present in the polluted soil, is at its highest. This leads to a new decontamination method, called bio-dielectric in-situ remediation of soils. This paper describes the results of an in-situ pilot-test on oil contaminated soil with this method. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.