Innova's DFTD process is suitable for all organic based contaminants including petroleum hydrocarbons, PAHs, OCPs, PCBs, dioxins and furans. Several measures have been employed to ensure that all EPA stack gas and particulate emission standards are not only met but are in fact considered world's best practice.

Specifically, the Innova process employs:

  • A gas phase conversion chamber with >3 seconds residence time at above 1000°C, ensuring complete conversion of the gas phase contaminants to carbon dioxide and water.
  • A recuperative heat exchanger to cool off-gases to 850°C and simultaneously pre-heat combustion air to around 450°C, substantially increasing the energy efficiency of the process.
  • A rapid gas quench to dry-cool the off-gases from 850°C to below 175°C in less than 50 milliseconds, eliminating the potential for contaminant reformation and dioxin formation in the reactive environment.
  • Mikropul baghouse particulate filter system to remove particulate material from the off-gas stream. Particulates captured in the baghouse are then reconstituted with the clean product soil through an auger system.
  • The cooled gases - at less than 175°C - are scrubbed via a specially designed packed bed wet scrubber to remove any acid gases resulting from chlorinated hydrocarbon contaminated soil treatment.

Process Gas Temperature

The rapid quench and wet scrubber systems used by Innova Soil Technology to prevent contaminant reformation and remove acid gases from the off-gas stream respectively, enables Innova to process soil containing highly chlorinated contaminants such as pesticides and PCBs. Treatment of such soils with traditional direct heated thermal desorption was previously considered difficult, due to the emission of HCl gases or production of dioxins and furans in the off-gas stream. The rapid quench prevents this contaminant reformation potential while the acid scrubber efficiently neutralizes any acid gases present in the off-gas stream leading to the Innova DFTD process meeting world's best practice emission standards.

In summary, the Innova advantages are:

  • The rapid gas quench eliminates any potential for dioxin formation, and emissions meet world's best standards of 0.1 ng/Nm3.
  • Use of the wet scrubber to neutralize any acid gases encountered while treating contaminated soil, particularly that of chlorinated hydrocarbons, significantly reduces acid gas emissions.
  • Through the recuperative heat exchanger the DFTD process also recycles waste heat energy to the burners, further reducing energy use and operating costs while improving reliability and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Innova system can also be modified to respond to particular soil characteristics, rather than act as a fixed operational process.