Two-stage remediation of particulate material
AssigneeExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company
InventorsGregory P. Rockwell, Sean M. Mercer
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and systems are provided for two-stage treatment of contaminated particulate material, such as soil, sediment, and/or sludge. The methods and systems utilize a thermal desorption process combined with a smoldering combustion process. The contaminated particulate material is first exposed to thermal desorption at high temperatures (e.g., greater than 150° C.) to form a heated contaminated particulate material. Next, a smoldering combustion process is initiated by introducing a combustion-supporting gas. The combined process can take place in the same or different treatment units.
Claims19
A two-stage process for treating particulate materials containing organic contaminants comprising:
- removing an amount of contaminated particulate material from a location;
- transferring the contaminated particulate material to a thermal desorption unit;
- subjecting the contaminated particulate material to a thermal desorption process, wherein the thermal desorption process includes heating the contaminated particulate material to volatilize a portion of the organic contaminants and to form a preheated contaminated particulate material, and collecting the volatilized organic contaminants outside of the thermal desorption unit;
- transferring the preheated contaminated particulate material to a smoldering combustion unit;
- and
- subjecting the preheated contaminated particulate material to a smoldering combustion process, wherein the smoldering combustion process includes admitting the preheated contaminated particulate material to the smoldering combustion unit having an inlet for the preheated contaminated particulate material and an outlet for a treated particulate material to be withdrawn from the smoldering combustion unit, operating the smoldering combustion unit under conditions sufficient to ignite a smoldering combustion reaction, which creates gaseous combustion products, collecting the gaseous combustion products outside of the smoldering combustion unit, and withdrawing a treated particulate material from the outlet of the smoldering combustion unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.