US 4,839,061 AGranted

Method and apparatus for treatment of hazardous material spills

OwnerFrank Manchak Jr., Frank Manchak IIIinventors

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

Spills of hazardous materials are treated at the site of the spill using an integrated spill responder system which enables personnel to remain at a safe distance from the spill. The mobile, fully self-contained system is dispatched to the spill site and uses a remotely controlled spill treatment head which is maintained in close non-contact proximity to the spill. The system continuously monitors the progress of the treatment operation through various sensors mounted on a boom assembly, or by vacuum drawing samples of the spilled material and chemical treatment agents mixed therewith aboard the spill responder vehicle. Once the spill has been reduced to a non-hazardous form, the treated material can be left at the site of the spill, removed by standard vacuum trucks, or removed by the spill responder system itself by using internal storage tanks.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A method of treating a spill of hazardous material comprising the steps of:

(a) supporting a spill pickup and treatment head from a mobile apparatus and sensing the distance between said head and the spill surface;
(b) automatically maintaining a substantially constant distance between said head and the spill surface to permit said head to efficiently draw a sample from the spill surface without said head directly contacting the spill surface;
(c) vacuum drawing a sample of said hazardous material with said head from the site of the spill to said mobile treatment apparatus;
(d) measuring preselected physical or chemical properties of said hazardous material sample on board said apparatus;
(e) using said measured properties to select one or more treatment agents for treating the spilled hazardous material;
(f) transferring said treatment agent or agents from supplies thereof aboard said mobile treatment apparatus to the spill of the hazardous material;
and
(g) repeatedly drawing samples of a mixture of the spilled hazardous material and treatment agent from the spill site aboard the mobile apparatus and evaluating, on board said mobile apparatus, effectiveness of said agent or agents in treatment of said spill.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.