In Dynamic Underground Stripping, steam drives contaminated water toward extraction wells and then heats the soil to distill organic compounds. Electrical heating dries and distills impermeable clays that the steam cannot readily penetrate.
Geophysical techniques monitor the process.
The method operates both above and below the water table and is particularly economically attractive for removing separate-phase contaminants. The problem is compounded in clay soils that have low permeability. Vacuum extraction has been very effective at removing highly concentrated contaminants above the water table, but neither method is useful below the water table. Dynamic Underground Stripping removes separate-phase contaminants below the water table by heating the subsurface above the boiling point of water, and then removing both contaminant and water by vacuum extraction. Three integrated technologies Dynamic Underground Stripping relies on three integrated technologies.