Gas-gas-water treatment for groundwater and soil remediation

A sparging system for in-situ removal of contaminants from soil and an associated subsurface groundwater aquifer of a site comprising:

• a microporous diffuser having a porosity matched to a soil porosity characteristic;
• packing material having a porous structure matching the condition of porosity of the soil with 30 percent (30%) pore distribution;
• an injection well within which is disposed the at least one microporous diffuser to inject microbubbles in the site;
• an ozone generator;
• a co-reactant that promotes decomposition of the contaminants by reaction with the gas in the bubbles in the presence of water;
• a bubble chamber comprising:
• a pneumatic packer;
• a pump having an inlet above the bubble chamber and an outlet in the bubble chamber below the pneumatic packer;
• and
• an outlet screen providing the outlet for the bubble chamber, said outlet screen having a porosity matched to that of a porosity condition of soil;
• a controller to control the pump and gas delivered to the diffuser and bubble chamber to alternate pumping and bubble injection, with the controller operating the pump to alternate pumping and bubble injection into the well to maximize dispersal of bubbles within and outward from the injection well and to provide uniform dispersion of the bubbles as they travel through the site formation;
• and
• pressure monitoring and groundwater sensing devices to remotely monitor and regulate mixing operation of the system.

A process for removing contaminants from a site, said contaminants including dissolved chlorinated hydrocarbons and dissolved hydrocarbon products, said process comprising:

• injecting into the site, gas, including an oxidizing gas under conditions to cause the oxidizing gas to break carbon-carbon bonds in the contaminants in the site, said injecting further comprising:
• alternating water injection with bubble production to provide an even dispersion of bubbles, with the bubbles having a bubble diameter in a range of about 5 to 200 microns to promote pulling of contaminants into the bubbles and to decompose the contaminants in the reaction that breaks the double carbon bonds with the gas in the bubbles in the presence of water;
• and
• enhancing decomposition of the contaminants by carrying out the reaction in the presence of a reaction promoter.