TECHNICAL PAPERS
May 1, 1996

Conceptual Design of Soil Venting Systems

Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 122, Issue 5

Abstract

A method for economically based conceptual design of soil venting systems is described. The objective of this method is to provide a means of estimating the cost and schedule of site cleanup for the purposes of technology selection and for focusing detailed system design. Idealized treatments of contaminant volatilization and flow of gas in the soil are employed to obtain estimates of transient off-gas concentration and the vacuum required at the extraction vents for a given set of site and system design conditions. Capital and operating costs of blowers and emissions control devices are estimated using standard techniques, allowing comparison of the required processing cost for cleanup under various design strategies. The utility of this technique is illustrated for an example case of a 95,000-L (25,000-gal) JP-4 jet fuel spill. The results for this test case indicate that emissions control predictably increases cleanup cost, with carbon adsorption being more costly than catalytic oxidation. This treatment predicts than an optimum flow rate and system size exist for each design strategy at a particular site.

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Go to Journal of Environmental Engineering
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 122Issue 5May 1996
Pages: 399 - 406

History

Published online: May 1, 1996
Published in print: May 1996

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Authors

Affiliations

David W. DePaoli
Devel. Engr., Chem. Technol. Div., Oak Ridge Nat. Lab., P.O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6224.
James H. Wilson
Sr. Devel. Engr., Chem. Technol. Div., Oak Ridge Nat. Lab., P.O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN.
Carl O. Thomas
Prof. Emeritus, Dept. of Chem. Engrg., Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37966.

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