Demonstration of a scalable process for remediation of petroleum-impacted soil using electron beam irradiation

Abstract

Petroleum-impacted soils pose several hazards and require fast, effective, and versatile remediation techniques. Electron beam irradiation provides a novel means of heating soil and inducing non-equilibrium chemical reactions and has previously been applied to environmental remediation. In this work a scalable process for remediation of petroleum-impacted soils using a 100 kW, 3 MeV industrial electron beam is investigated. The process involves conveying impacted soil through a beam at a controllable rate to achieve a desired dose of approximately 1000 kGy. Reductions to less than 1% Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) content from an initial TPH of 3.3% were demonstrated for doses of 710-1370 kGy. These reductions were achieved in in conditions equivalent to 4 m³ per hour, demonstrating the applicability of this technique to remediation sites. TPH reduction appeared to be temperature-dependent but not heavily dependent on dose rate, with reductions of 96% achieved for a dose of 1370 kGy and peak temperature of 540 °C. The performance of the process at high dose rates suggests that it can be incorporated into remediation of sites for which a high rate of material processing is required with a relatively small device footprint.

Keywords: Electron beam; Soil remediation; Total petroleum hydrocarbons.