A thermal blanket is a device used in in-situ thermal desorption (ISTD) to clean large area soil contamination. The primary function of a thermal blanket is to heat the soil to the boiling point of the contaminants (usually 800 to 1,000°C). The contaminants break down. A vacuum pulls the resulting gas (along with some contaminants) into a separate air cleaner that may use various methods, such as carbon filters and high-heat ovens, to completely destroy the contaminants.
Deep contaminations are handled using a similar method with a deep penetrating heat source. This is commonly referred to as an ISTD thermal well.
Famous quotes containing the word blanket:
“We agree fully that the mother and unborn child demand special consideration. But so does the soldier and the man maimed in industry. Industrial conditions that are suitable for a stalwart, young, unmarried woman are certainly not equally suitable to the pregnant woman or the mother of young children. Yet “welfare” laws apply to all women alike. Such blanket legislation is as absurd as fixing industrial conditions for men on a basis of their all being wounded soldiers would be.”
—National Woman’s Party, quoted in Everyone Was Brave. As, ch. 8, by William L. O’Neill (1969)