A numerical simulation of thermally-enhanced soil vapor extraction with a validation of an actual contaminated site

Thermally-enhanced soil vapor extraction (T-SVE) remediation technology is widely used in organic-contaminated sites due to its high efficiency, short remediation period and controllable secondary contamination. However, the remediation efficiency is affected by the complex site factors, which leads to the uncertainty of the remediation process and energy waste. Thus, it is necessary to optimize T-SVE systems to accurately remediate the sites. In this work, a pilot site of reagent factory in Tianjin was taken as the research object to validate the model, and the T-SVE process parameters of a VOCs-contaminated sites were predicted by this simulation method. The simulation results showed that the Nash efficiency coefficient E of the measured and simulated temperature rise data in the study area was 0.885, and the linear correlation coefficient R of the measured and simulated concentrations of cis-1,2-dichloroethylene after remediation was 0.877, indicating that this simulation method is highly reliable. Based on this numerical simulation method, some parameters of the T-SVE process at the VOCs-contaminated site of an insulation plant in Harbin were simulated and optimized. Included a heating well spacing of 3.0 m, extraction pressure of 40 Kpa, extraction well influence radius of 4.35 m, extraction flow rate of 2.97 × 10-4 m3/s, and a theoretical number of 25 extraction wells (adjusted to 29 wells in practice), and the corresponding extraction well layout has been designed. The results can provide a technical reference for the future application of T-SVE in the remediation of organic-contaminated sites. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd