drill cuttings associated with drilling fluid are thermally cleaned . the wet cuttings are fed into a vessel chamber having mechanical mixers , such as ribbon blenders , extending lengthwise of the chamber . direct heating is applied to the chamber contents by introducing hot combustion gas from a heater . a combination of direct heating and mechanical back mixing of wet colder cuttings with drier hotter cuttings results in conditioning and conduction heating of the wet cuttings . the drilling fluid is evaporated and removed as gas . dried cuttings are separately recovered . caking and agglomeration of the solids is reduced .