ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Electrical Resistance Heating Environmental Remediation

Updated on October 9, 2018
Rock_nj profile image

I thoroughly enjoy writing, especially about environmental issues and how to make the environment we live in better for everyone.

Electrical Resistance Heating (ERH) Environmental Remediation

Sites That Are Occupied Are Good Canidates For Electrical Resistance Heating (ERH) Environmental Remediation
Sites That Are Occupied Are Good Canidates For Electrical Resistance Heating (ERH) Environmental Remediation

A Look At Electrical Resistance Heating (ERH) Environmental Remediation

Traditional soil and ground water environmental remediation methods, such as soil excavation that involves off-site disposal and ground water treatment systems (e.g., pump and treat or air stripping), are not only expensive, but can also be very disruptive to a property that has building on it and is being actively used. While disruptive environmental remediation methods can be tolerated on fallow brownfields sites that are not being used by anyone, they are very cumbersome and sometimes entirely impractical for properties with commercial or residential buildings on them. For active sites, Electrical Resistance Heating (ERH) is a remediation option that should be taken under consideration.

Necessity is the mother of all invention. In response to physical site constraints, the environmental remediation field has developed a number of in-situ (in place) remediation methods that are non-disruptive and often are not even noticeable to property occupants, yet are still capable of cleaning up contaminants beneath polluted properties to safe levels below regulatory thresholds. One of these in-situ remediation methods is Electrical Resistance Heating (ERH), which utilizes alternating current (AC) electricity to heat volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) contaminated soil and ground water, which causes contaminants to evaporate, reducing their concentrations.

How Electrical Resistance Heating Looks Underground

Electrical Resistance Heating In Action.  The Earth Is Heated and Volatile Organic Compounds Are Liberated
Electrical Resistance Heating In Action. The Earth Is Heated and Volatile Organic Compounds Are Liberated | Source

How Electrical Resistance Remediation Heating Works

Electrical Resistance Heating remediation involves passing an electric current through a soil or ground water contaminant area. This is done by installing subsurface electrode elements that facilitate the flow of electrical current through the contaminant area. The soils and ground water in the contaminant area naturally resist the electrical flow, which causes the soils and ground water to heat up. The goal is to heat the ground water in the contaminant area to the boiling point, which causes the ground water to change from the water phase to the gaseous phase, which causes VOCs and SVOCs contaminants to be liberated from the soil and ground water, thus reducing their concentrations in the subsurface soil and ground water contaminant area.

The liberated VOCs and SVOCs vapors naturally move towards the surface; however, since timely remediation is required for sites with buildings on them, vapor removal must be enhanced and accelerated. The accelerated removal of vapors from the subsurface is done by utilizing Soil Vapor Extraction (SVE), which involves the installation of subsurface wells or use of existing subsurface wells to apply a vacuum to the subsurface to draw out vapors. The vapors are then treated at the surface in accordance with pertinent environmental regulations.

Electrical Resistance Heating also enhances and accelerates the natural degradation of VOCs and SVOCs contaminants by speeding up naturally occurring bioremediation, as warmer subsurface temperatures allow subsurface contaminant eating microbes to multiply readily, and by enhancing hydrolysis and iron reductive dehalogenation, which both naturally reduce contaminant levels in the subsurface.

While removal of VOCs and SVOCs contaminants is desirable, since it reduces their concentrations in the subsurface soil and ground water contaminant area to safe levels below regulatory thresholds, it can cause VOCs and SVOCs vapors to enter buildings and structures at the surface, if they do not have properly installed vapor barriers. This is a short term concern since upon completion of the Electrical Resistance Heating remediation, temperatures in the subsurface gradually return to normal and any residual VOCs and SVOCs vapors are greatly lessened or eliminated since the VOCs and SVOCs source of the contamination in soil and ground water beneath the site has been addressed and contaminant levels have been greatly reduced.

To adequately protect building occupants during Electrical Resistance Heating remediation, positive pressure should be established in buildings on the property to ensure that vapors do not enter buildings and a High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filtration system with activated charcoal filtration should be utilized within buildings to further ensure indoor air quality is not affected by the remediation.

How Electrical Resistance Remediation Is Being Used

Electrical Resistance Heating is most often used on sites with buildings on them since removal or treatment of contaminants by other means is often not possible without removal of the building structures. The most typical Electrical Resistance Heating remediation goal is the reduction of chlorinated VOCs contaminant levels that are dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) and petroleum hydrocarbons that are light non-aqueous phase liquids (LNAPL). Chlorinated VOCs are most often associated with solvents that are used for a variety of industrial and commercial purposes, including dry cleaning.

While Electrical Resistance Heating cannot be utilized on all contaminated sites, due to site-specific conditions that are unfavorable, Electrical Resistance Heating has proven to be highly effective at reducing VOCs and SVOCs contaminants to safe levels below regulatory thresholds at thousands of sites across the United States. The effectiveness of Electrical Resistance Heating remediation is assessed by collection of post-treatment soil and ground water samples. Electrical Resistance Heating is particularly useful at sites where buildings or other structures limit treatment options and a non-disruptive in-situ treatment method is necessary to remediate the site without disturbance to site occupants.

Guaranteed Remediation in Soil -- 3D

© 2011 John Coviello

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)