An Overview on Microwave Heating Application for Hydrocarboncontaminated Soil and Groundwater Remediation

The world’s dependence on oil has created in the last decades a continuous and growing demands for hydrocarbon products. Their improper management or accidental spills have caused a discharge in the environment of massive amounts of organic contaminants in soils, also resulting in groundwater contamination phenomena. Contamination process is often dynamic, hidden, cumulative and not reversible. Generally, the common volatile and/or soluble organic contaminants include aromatic compounds, polychlorinated organic compounds, herbicides and pesticides. 

Most of these contaminants are low-soluble, toxic, mutagenic and even carcinogenic, and may be of great risk to human health and ecosystems. In recent years, a variety of chemical-physical or biologic treatments have been investigated to remediate hydrocarbon-polluted soils and groundwater. However, these techniques have been often demonstrated as ineffective, expensive or too lengthy, while literature reports that thermal technologies could be very effective due to their high versatility, removal efficiency and required time.  Read more>>>>>>>>>>>>>>