From there the slurry is injected to the sediment cleaning chamber to loosen the bonds between the pollutant and the particle. After the cleaning chamber, the slurry flows to the scrubber to further weaken the bonds between contaminants and particles. After the scrubber, the slurry passes through a buffer tank, where large particles separate by gravity. The slurry then flows through hydrocyclone banks to separate solids down to 3 to 5 microns in size. The free liquid routes to a centrifuge for final solid-liquid separation.
Decontaminated water is recycled back through the process.
The proprietary cleaner contains no hazardous ingredients and its characteristics were reviewed during the EPA SITE demonstration. This technology extracts many inorganics, volatile and nonvolatile hydrocarbons, chlori-nated hydrocarbons, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, and most organics from nearly every soil type, including clay. The BioGenesis soil washing technology was accepted into the SITE Demonstration Program in June 1990. The process was demonstrated at a refinery site in Minnesota. The BioGenesis sediment washing technology is scheduled for PCB testing under the SITE Demonstration Program in November 1994.