A New Separation and Treatment Method for Soil and Groundwater Restoration

41387 November 20, 1996 Lynntech, Inc. Soil and groundwater contamination by organic compounds is a widespread environmental pollution problem. It is standard practice to excavate and transport contaminated soil to a suitable landfill or to incinerate the soil to remove the contaminant. Such practices are expensive, environmentally disruptive, require extensive permitting and only move the contamination from one location to another. On-site and in-situ treatments of contaminated soils are safe and economical methods of permanently solving this problem. Many soil and ground water contaminants are highly volatile and enable separation methods such as in-situ vacuum extraction and air injection to be used for their removal. However, these methods are often difficult to use because of slow rates of volatilization and because of the lack of effective methods to treat the hazardous material following the extraction step. This project will develop a new in-situ technique to enhance existing soil extraction procedures by being effective against volatile as-well-as non volatile compounds, shorten treatment times, and develop a new catalytic process to degrade the extracted contaminants on site. In Phase II, a mobile treatment unit will be constructed and pilot tested. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The method could be used as a primary or secondary technology for the treatment of underground formations contaminated with hazardous organic wastes. It can be set up promptly after accidental pollution takes place, and it has the potential to be harmlessly applied. This technology could be readily transferred to the commercial sector.