Green PCB Remediation from Sediment Systems (GPRSS) Project

An ongoing problem facing the global environment community including NASA centers is the removal and remediation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). PCBs were commonly used in a variety of materials including paints, caulking, and adhesives due to the advantageous physical and chemical properties that PCBs imparted to these various materials. Unfortunately, these properties have made the treatment of sites contaminated with these chemicals extremely difficult to deal with, due to their inherent chemical stability. The remediation of sediments contaminated with PCBs is especially difficult, primarily due to the risk of releasing the contaminant into the environment during the treatment process. Traditional treatment options involve the use of dredging and incineration of the contaminated soils/sediments, in which the chance of releasing the contaminants is greatly increased. The purpose of this project is to develop cleanup technology capable of remediating contaminated sediments in-situ, with minimum intrusion. This allows for the minimization of any potential contaminant release during the treatment process, providing a safer method for cleanup operations (as opposed to dredging/incineration) and still treating the basic problem of PCB contamination (as opposed to capping).