Developing Novel Approaches for Mapping and Destroying Industrial Pollutants in Soil

在加拿大和整个工业化世界，危险工业化学品对土壤和地下水的污染仍然是一个严重问题。重油和氯化溶剂因其普遍性、毒性和耐降解性而被列为最优先考虑的污染物。它们通过工业事故(例如深水地平线)、管道和地下储罐的缓慢泄漏以及世界各地石油生产和炼油设施中无法使用的淤泥的积累进入环境。一旦进入环境，它们就会保留数十年至数百年，污染空气、土壤和地下水。目前对溶剂应用的补救方法很少成功，而且对于重油来说，也不存在(目前被业界称为‘无望’废物)。 这项研究计划将逐步改变修复受这些高优先级污染物影响的地点的速度。它将通过两种方式实现这一目标。首先，开发创新技术，以经济和彻底的方式清理含有这些污染物的土壤。这将通过应用阴燃破坏的原理来实现(同样的过程，在烧烤中将木炭转化为灰烬，仅使用一根火柴的能量)。其次，它将开发先进的监测技术，可以跟踪清理工作的有效性。这将通过应用地球物理技术来实现，这些技术已经被用于寻找埋在地下的管道和考古城市，以测量在清理过程中清除地下污染物的数量。 其结果将是新的环境工程工具比现有工具更便宜、更有效、更节能、更可持续。这些技术将在加拿大开发和商业化，在日益增长的环境恢复领域提供就业机会和领导地位。此外，它们还将在全球范围内开辟新的市场，以清理目前被认为“无望”的污染物，不仅提供经济效益，还将带来社会、健康和环境效益。

Contamination of soil and groundwater by hazardous industrial chemicals remains a serious problem in Canada and throughout the industrialized world. Heavy oils and chlorinated solvents are among the highest priority pollutants due to their prevalence, toxicity, and resistance to degradation. They enter the environment through industrial accidents (e.g., Deepwater Horizon), slow leaks from pipes and underground tanks, and the accumulation of unusable sludge at oil production and refinery facilities worldwide. Once in the environment, they remain for decades to centuries, polluting air, soil, and groundwater. Currently applied remediation approaches for solvents are rarely successful and, for heavy oils, do not exist (currently referred to by industry as 'no hope' wastes). This research program will make a step-change in the pace of restoring sites impacted by these high priority pollutants. It will achieve this in two ways. First, by developing innovative technologies that can economically and completely clean-up soils containing these pollutants. This will be achieved by applying the principle of smouldering destruction (the same process that turns charcoal into ash in a barbeque using only the energy of a single match). Second, it will develop advanced monitoring techniques that can track the effectiveness of clean-up efforts. This will be achieved by applying geophysics techniques, which are already used to find buried pipes and archaeological cities, to measure the amount of underground pollutant being removed during clean-up. The result will be new environmental engineering tools that are much more inexpensive, effective, energy efficient, and sustainable than those available. These technologies will be developed and commercialized in Canada, providing jobs and leadership in the growing field of environmental restoration. Moreover, they will open up new markets worldwide for cleaning up pollutants currently considered as 'no hope', providing not only economic benefits, but also social, health, and environmental benefits.