Gas-gas-water treatment system for groundwater and soil remediation
OwnerWilliam B. Kerfootinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sparging system for in-situ groundwater remediation for removal of contamination including dissolved chlorinated hydrocarbons and dissolved hydrocarbon petroleum products including the use in injection wells of microfine bubble generators, matched to substrates of selected aquifer regions, for injection and distribution of said bubbles containing oxidizing gas through said aquifer and to selectively encapsulating gases including oxygen and ozone in duo-gas bubbles which, in the presence of co-reactant substrate material acting as a catalyst, are effective to encourage biodegradation of leachate plumes which contain biodegradable organics, or Criegee decomposition of leachate plumes containing dissolved chlorinated hydrocarbons.
Claims12
A method for removing contaminants from a site, said contaminants including dissolved hydrocarbon products, said method comprising:
- injecting into a well, a gas including ozone under conditions to break carbon-carbon bonds in the contaminants in the site, the gas injected as microbubbles;
- injecting water into the well;
- and
- alternating injection of water with injection of the gas to produce the microbubbles, with the microbubbles having a bubble diameter of less than about 200 microns, the contaminants being pulled into the bubbles to decompose the contaminants in a reaction with the ozone in the bubbles.
An apparatus for in-situ removal of contaminants from soil and an associated subsurface groundwater aquifer at a site, the apparatus comprising:
- a microporous diffuser to generate microbubbles for extracting contaminants from groundwater;
- an ozone source coupled to the microporous diffuser to produce the microbubbles encapsulating ozone;
- a pump for forming a pressure wave for dispersion flow of the microbubbles into the soil and associated groundwater aquifer;
- and
- a co-reactant material to act as co-reactant with ozone in the microbubbles for decomposing the contaminants.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.