Comparison of thermal methods for the remediation of hydrocarbon contaminated soils: A systematic review

Globally, the contamination of soils by hydrocarbons has become a growing environmental concern. The presence of these compounds in soils can alter their physicochemical properties, affecting their structure, porosity and water retention capacity. Additionally, hydrocarbons can be toxic to soil organisms, inhibiting microbial activity and harming plants and animals that depend on this resource. In this article, we analyze a range of thermal remediation techniques for hydrocarbon-contaminated soils, comparing their efficiency. In order to conduct this analysis, 98 scientific articles from quartiles Q1 and Q2 were selected from databases such as Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Wiley and MDPI, employing the Boolean operators "Techniques" AND "Remediation" AND "Hydrocarbons". The review focused on extracting and comparing common parameters such as soil type, the hydrocarbon studied, removal percentage and the energy used in the research. The techniques analyzed included thermal desorption, electron beam irradiation, resistance heating, electrokinetics, microwave radiation and soil vapor extraction. The quantitative results demonstrate the high degree of efficacy of these techniques, with thermal desorption achieving removal rates of up to 100% in certain cases. Electron beam irradiation was up to 95% effective in terms of the removal rate for hydrocarbons in clayey soils, while resistance heating achieved a removal efficiency of 99.99% in silty sandy soils. Electrokinetics was up to 98% effective in the removal of crude oil, while microwave radiation exhibited a high degree of efficiency in the removal of volatile and semi-volatile organic contaminants.