The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	Microwave treatment of organic contaminated soil
Author:	Fan, Suning
View Online:	njit-etd1989-016 (vi, 85 pages ~ 3.2 MB pdf)
Department:	Department of Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and Environmental Science
Degree:	Master of Science
Program:	Environmental Science
Document Type:	Thesis
Advisory Committee:	Dauerman, Leonard (Committee chair) Chan, Paul C. (Committee member) Cheng, Su Ling (Committee member)
Date:	1989
Keywords:	Soil pollution Microwaves Naphthalene--Environmental aspects Trichloroethylene--Environmental aspects
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	The development of microwave technology to treat hazardous wastes hasbeen in progress at NJIT for the past three years. The initial stagesof this program have focused on determining the' breadth of hazardouswaste problems that are amenable to microwave technology applications.Benchscale studies have shown the following processes are technicallypossible: a. It is possible to steam strip organic volatiles from soil; b. Volatiles can be destroyed by impact upon lossy so lids c. Heavy metal ions can be immobilized in soil; d. It is possible to regenerate GAC on-site. e. It is possible to pyrolyze polyarmotic compounds in soil in-site,and, thereby, effect decontamination. In this thesis, it has been shown that a relatively nonvolatile compoundlike naphthalene can be steam-stripped from soil; that the incidentmicrowave energy penetrates the soil; that for volatile compounds aredifficult to quantify effects; that in a comparison of microwave toincineration based upon economic and other considerations. It is concludedthat microwave can play an potentially significant role in the cleanup at contaminated soil.