| Abstract
| - Low-temperature thermal desorption, in which thermal energy is used to vaporize and physicallyseparate volatile and semivolatile organic contaminants from soil, is among the most promisingand economic ex situ soil remediation alternatives. Experiments were performed using a bench-scale thermal desorber, the batch thermal reactor, which was developed as a prototype tocommercial desorbers. A treatability study using four representative samples of industrialcontaminated soil was followed by a fundamental study of the thermal desorption process usingthree controlled samples prepared by mixing a soil with binary mixtures of selected polynucleararomatic hydrocarbons. For the industrial samples, the effect of desorber residence time,temperature, and several pretreatments on contaminant removal was investigated. Three ofthe five samples were successfully treated to the legislated soil remediation limits. Using theprepared samples, the effects of sample porosity, contaminant molar mass, desorber residencetime, and temperature on thermal desorption were investigated. The experimental results werefitted to an exponential desorption equation, and the desorption rate curves were generated toprovide a basis for scale-up.
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