SVE Vapor Treatment - Refrigeration
The Basics
Environmental professionals have applied soil vapor extraction methods for decades. You simply create a partial vacuum in the vadose zone, extract air and other vapors, and treat the captured gases with appropriate equipment at the surface. Volatile organic liquids have, by definition, suitably high vapor pressures so that you can remove significant contaminant mass in the vapor phase. Typically, you treat the effluent vapors by capturing them on granulated activated carbon (GAC) or by oxidizing them thermally or catalytically.
Unfortunately, GAC is often prohibitively expensive, especially when you have high vapor phase concentrations. Furthermore, GAC does not efficiently adsorb many compounds, such as vinyl chloride and methylene chloride.
Oxidizers, too, are unable to handle high concentrations. Further, scrubbers are often required for chlorinated compounds. They are often expensive and difficult to maintain.
Cryogenic cooling, combined with compression (C3 Technology), offers a sustainable alternative, without the constraints of traditional vapor treatment technologies. You end up with separate phase liquids that may have considerable intrinsic value. While high vapor concentrations are problematic and expensive for traditional technologies, they are the “sweet-spot” for C3 Technology.
The Company Dajak Represents
G.E.O. Inc. provides cryogenic cooling and compression equipment to recover VOCs from soil vapor extraction effluent streams. The patent pending C3 Technology process recovers the VOCs as a separate, pure phase liquid.
Benefits
- Reduced costs – C3 Technology is often a low cost solution when vapor phase concentrations are high
- Ideal for chlorinated solvents – no scrubbers required
- Ideal for petroleum hydrocarbons – the recovered liquids have considerable monetary value
- 99.8% mass removal
- High reliability – 90% operation up-time guaranteed
- Works great with heat enhanced vapor recovery technologies, such as electrical resistance heating
- No air dilution – yields faster results
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