Abstract: Organic contaminants, including BTEX, PAHs, PCBs, TPH, etc., are the main pollutants in the petrochemical contaminated soil. Thermal desorption technology with rotary kiln, which has a good application prospect, is an efficient and suitable technology for the remediation of soil contaminated by petrochemical industry in China. The thermal desorption remediation technology was analyzed and discussed in detail from the aspects of technical principle, technical characteristics, technical classification, tail gas treatment and influence factors. The technology still has a space for enhancement in the areas of energy saving and cost reduction and independent integrated development. It is necessary to improve the thermal efficiency by further utilizing the waste heat in the soil and tail gas with high temperature from the rotary kiln. In addition, the development should be accelerated for the soil thermal desorption recovery and tail gas treatment devices which are suitable for China's national conditions and have independent intellectual property rights.