Devices and methods for measuring thermal flux and estimating rate of change of reactive material within a subsurface formation

A method for thermal monitoring and site remediation within a subsurface formation to determine the unknown rate of change of an amount of a subject organic material being degraded by unpredictable subsurface exothermic or endothermic reactions, the rate of change being used for incorporation into a site remediation strategy, the method comprising:

• monitoring a plurality of site temperatures captured using one or more sensors from a plurality of positions along a vertical transect passing through the subsurface formation
• logging the plurality of site temperatures in a digital data storage device, the data storage device operable to receive and store the plurality of site temperatures;
• transmitting to a processor the plurality of site temperatures from the data storage device using a digital data transmittal device and yielding transmitted data;
• calculating with said processor a plurality of corrected temperatures, the plurality of corrected temperatures calculated by subtracting a plurality of background temperatures from the plurality of site temperatures at each of the vertical positions, wherein each of the plurality of background temperatures comprising a representation of a temperature from a vertical position within subject organic material-free region;
• calculating with said processor a net rate of energy change produced by an endothermic reaction or an exothermic reaction of the organic material within the subsurface formation by adding one or more energy fluxes, the one or more energy fluxes comprising:
• a rate of change of energy within the region including the organic material of the subsurface formation associated with temperature changes;
• a conductive heat flux from the region including the organic material of the subsurface formation via an amount of substrate adjacent to the region including the organic material;
• and
• a convective heat flux via at least one of water or water vapor flowing through the region including the organic material of the subsurface formation;
• calculating with said processor a rate of change of an amount of the organic material within the subsurface formation, the rate of change of the amount of the organic material calculated by dividing the net rate of energy change by a change in enthalpy associated with the exothermic or endothermic degradation reaction of the organic material within the subsurface formation;
• displaying a visual representation of the rate of change of an amount of the organic material, the visual representation being a graph summarizing a plurality of daily loss rates based on the rate of change of the amount of the organic material;
• and
• using rate of change of the organic material to develop a site remedial strategy for removal of the organic material from the subsurface formation based on achieving site-specific organic material amount goals.