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Thermal conductive heating coupled with in situ chemical oxidation for soil and groundwater remediation: A quantitative assessment for sustainability

2023; Elsevier BV; Volume: 423; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.138732

1879-1786

Zongshuai Yang, Changlong Wei, Xin Song, Xin Liu, Zhiwen Tang, Peng Liu, Yunxiao Wei,

Environmental remediation with nanomaterials

Thermal conductive heating (TCH), broadly applied to remove volatile and semi-volatile organic contaminants from subsurface, is often considered unsustainable due to its high carbon emissions, energy consumption and expensive costs. TCH coupled with in situ chemical oxidation (TCH-ISCO) has drawn much attention recently due to its ability to achieve cleanup goals of groundwater remediation in a timely manner as TCH does, but at much lower temperatures. However, there is a lack of quantitative assessment on the sustainability of TCH-ISCO based on field data. In this study, a quantitative life cycle assessment approach coupled with best management practices (LCA-BMPs) model was developed with data collected in the field to assess the sustainability of TCH-ISCO for chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons (CAHs) contaminated soil and groundwater remediation for the first time. The results revealed that the energy supply via electricity contributed to 68% and 93% of the adverse environmental impacts (e.g., global warming, mineral resource scarcity, and fine particulate matter formation), for TCH-ISCO and TCH, respectively. In addition, the carbon emissions and direct cost of TCH-ISCO were estimated to be 80% and 70% less than TCH, respectively. With regard to the social sustainability, TCH slightly outperformed TCH-ISCO. The overall sustainability scores of TCH-ISCO and TCH were 89.6 and 61.9, respectively, demonstrating that the sustainability performance of TCH-ISCO was significantly better than that of TCH. In view of the current demand for sustainable remediation technology, this study provides reliable data evaluation for the application of TCH-ISCO.