Treatment and disposal of contaminated materials such as soils, wastewater, spent activated carbon and spent pot liner present environmental, safety and economic challenges to industry. HRL assists clients in testing their contaminated materials and evaluating treatment options.
HRL's range of services relating to contaminated materials include soil remediation, activated carbon regeneration, landfill disposal and aluminium smelting (spent pot liner).
A major area of capability relates to construction and operation of pilot-scale equipment to investigate and demonstrate the performance of commercial or novel thermal treatment processes. As an example, we simulate thermal desorption processes in a small rotary kiln to determine the parameters, such as temperature and residence time, required for effective removal of organic contaminants. The extent of removal is determined based on analysis of the contaminated material before and after treatment.
Specific services which are applied to testing and remediation of contaminated materials include:
- Chemical analysis including VOCs, SVOCs, trace metals, mercury, TPH, and thermal analysis (TGA-DSC)
- Leachability testing for landfill disposal against relevant EPA standards such as IWRG621 and IWRG631
- Plant emissions testing for contaminants including particulates, SOx, NOx, PAHs, dioxins and furins, trace metals and halides
- Laboratory scale remediation trials for contaminated water
- Pilot-scale agglomeration and encapsulation of contaminated materials
- Process modelling, evaluation and troubleshooting of thermal processes
