Environmental news in Brazil has been dominated by oil spills in the past years. This dissertation presents the results of a comprehensive experimental programme on studying the ability of thermal desorption on cleaning up the affected shores.At ambient temperature, oiled debris emit methane and ammonia and these emissions tend to increase with rising temperatures. On the other hand, oil&grease content from oiled debris falls with rising temperature and prolonged exposure.A thermal blanket was designed, built and evaluated herein. Results have shown that its efficiency is restricted to few tenths of centimetres below the ground surface due to the thermal conductivity of sands. However, this drawback could be overcome is the control thermocouple of the system is positioned at the desired depth.Finally, in situ thermal desorption seem to be an unique system for cleaning debris from oil spills. It is simple, fast and avoids all the harassment associated to digging up the soil for disposal or cleanup.