6. Conclusion

Conventional thermal desorption is a robust technology which to date has been used to treat several tens of millions of tonnes of soil impacted, mainly by organic pollutants. It enables soil to be completely decontaminated and, in some cases, even reused for revegetation. In this respect, conventional thermal desorption is a land recycling technique.

While its main advantages are its high treatment capacity, processing speed and certainty of results, its main drawbacks are its high cost due to high energy consumption, and the need to excavate land. The technology is also unsuitable for treating heavy metals.

Since its launch in the late 1980s in the United States, conventional thermal desorption technology has evolved technically to keep pace with increasingly stringent emissions standards. It has also inspired new forms of thermal desorption...