Self-Sustaining Smouldering Combustion: A New Technique for the Remediation of Organic Industrial Liquids in Porous Media
Event details
| Date | 04.04.2011 |
| Hour | 16:15 |
| Speaker | Prof. Jason GERHARD; University of Western Ontario (CA) |
| Location |
GR B3 30
|
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Self-sustaining smoldering combustion is an innovative approach for clean-up of sites contaminated with nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs). This approach offers significant potential, in particular, for the in situ destruction of some of the most recalcitrant organic compounds, such as coal tar and heavy petroleum hydrocarbons, for which clean-up options are currently limited and very costly.
Smoldering is the flameless combustion of a liquid or solid fuel that derives heat from surface oxidation reactions; smoldering of charcoal in a barbeque is a typical example. This research was the first to demonstrate that NAPL embedded in a porous medium may be effectively destroyed via smoldering combustion. The technique has the potential to provide a cost effective and technically efficient remedy due to a number of key properties: (1) the process requires only a short duration energy input (i.e., ignition) at a single location to initiate the reaction; (2) the process is then self-sustaining, such that the reaction propagates itself through the NAPL source zone without additional energy input, (3) the process is self-targeting, such that the reaction naturally tracks through the subsurface NAPL pathways, (4) the process is self-terminating, such that the reaction naturally ceases when no NAPL remains, and (5) the process avoids injecting costly fluids or conveying NAPL or contaminated groundwater to the surface for treatment.
This presentation will illustrate the scientific principles behind this remediation concept, and summarize the six years of research that has been conducted to date. The results of experiments from proof-of-concept to bench scale to ex situ prototype reactor will be outlined. The presentation also covers the design and results of the first in situ field pilot study conducted at a former cresol manufacturing facility in New Jersey, USA. Finally, the presentation will outline the development of a numerical model to simulate the smouldering process at the field scale. Technology transfer to enable field implementation of the process is being facilitated via collaboration with a remediation vendor: SiREM, who is developing the technology under the name Self-Sustaining Treatment for Active Remediation (STAR; http://star.siremlab.com).
Links
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Contact
- Prof. D. Andrew Barry, ECOL