Desorption, specifically thermal desorption, can be applied as an environmental remediation technique. This physical process is designed to remove contaminants at relatively low temperatures, ranging from 90 to 560 °C, from the solid matrix. The contaminated media is heated to volatilize water and organic contaminants, followed by treatment in a gas treatment system in which after removal, the contaminants are collected or thermally destroyed. They are transported using a carrier gas or vacuum to a vapor treatment system for removal/transformation into less toxic compounds.
Thermal desorption systems operate at a lower design temperature, which is sufficiently high to achieve adequate volatilization of organic contaminants. Temperatures and residence times are designed to volatilize selected contaminants but typically will not oxidize them. It is applicable at sites where high direct waste burial is present, and a short timeframe is necessary to allow for continued use or redevelopment of the site.