Influence of the texture on the efficiency of thermal desorption process of soils contaminated with crude oil

Abstract

The hereby paper presents the experimental research on the influence of three types of soil texture on the
efficiency of decontamination performed using the technology of thermal desorption. The concentrations of
crude oil of the soil samples, the initial ones as well as those following the depollution process were
determined using the Soxhlet method. The decontamination process with thermal desorption on soil samples
was performed using the electric oven with chamber, and with silicon carbide bars. Experimental researches
were performed on the following types of soils: loamy sand, loam and loamy clay. The main parameters
established for the process of thermal desorption were the temperature 350 °C and the amount of time for
keeping the soil samples in the oven, of 5, 10 and 15 minutes. The results of the experiments indicated that
the type of texture has influenced the efficiency of the thermal desorption, and the highest efficiency was
obtained for the sample of loamy sand, treated for 15 minutes.