Modeling Heat Transfer for TNT Soil Remediation

Between 1905 and 1975, the DuPont Powder Company operated the largest explosives manufacturing plant in the world, producing over a half a billion pounds of explosives. The plant site, named Barksdale Works, was remotely located near Ashland, Wisconsin. Forty-five years after the site was closed and dismantled, there remains areas of soil that are contaminated with hazardous TNT, requiring effective remediation so that the land can be put to improved use. This presentation will detail an approach to large-scale soil TNT remediation that is an attractive and viable alternative to incineration. Considerations and challenges for a potential design will be discussed, with a specific focus on steady state and unsteady state heat transfer modeling.