Last week I did a story for a company magazine about a new way of cleaning polluted grounds. A factory in Roedekro in Denmark has for years polluted the underground with perchlor and it had allready hit the groundwater near drinking water well. Removing the contaminated soil was not an option because of the huge amounts and the fact that the usefull factory buildings are placed right above the contamination. The solution was dynamic underground stripping - a method where steam is blown into the ground and sucked out again. This method for treating underground contaminants with heat is much faster and more effective than traditional treatment methods, but it has not been used much because the process is very difficult to control. Once the steam pumping has begun it is critical that absolutely nothing can cause downtime in the months it takes. The result can be that the chemicals are pressed out of the area and out of control.
When I saw the machinery the process was nearly finished. It had taken about two months of non-stop cleaning using more than 19.000 liter diesel pr. day to make steam to clean the 18.000 tons soil. The processes are monitored and guided by underground imaging. Monitors are placed in 18 wells around the area in 16 meters depth to create a 3D image of the action. Dynamic underground stripping is relatively inexpensive and promises to be the cleanup technology of choice at numerous sites in the future.

The main contracters at the plant in Roedekro are: www.arkil.dk and www.orbicon.dk. I was hired to write a story for Louis Poulsen who delivered the computers (PLCs) and electrical components to the local specialist www.johnhoej.dk who did the programming and design of the GUI.