Granted Patent B2

US 8,540,457 · App. 12/705,440 · Granted Sep 24, 2013

Inventors: Charles R. Moncrief, III (Arroyo Grande, CA); Bryan Childress (Arroyo Grande, CA); Art Wyrick (Bodfish, CA)

Assignee: Clean Liquid, LLC

Abstract

Claims (54)

1. A system for use in remediating contaminants, the system comprising:

a plurality of gas product sources positioned at a geographic location to be treated;

a distribution manifold coupled with the plurality of product sources;

a plurality of diffusers coupled with and spaced over the distribution manifold, wherein each of the diffusers is positioned within a separate well within the soil proximate an area to be remediated; and

a controller coupled with the plurality of product sources and the distribution manifold, wherein the controller:

activates one or more of the product sources to generate, locally at the geographic location, one of five different gas products in accordance with a first step of a treatment schedule; and

communicates with the distribution manifold to direct the one of the five gas products to a predefined one of the diffuser in accordance with the treatment schedule;

wherein the plurality of product sources comprise:

an air source system coupled with the distribution manifold, where the air source system generates a compressed air product as a first product;

an oxygen source system coupled with the distribution manifold, wherein the oxygen source system generates a concentrated oxygen gas product as a second product; and

an ozone generator coupled with the oxygen source system and the distribution manifold, wherein the ozone generator receives at least a portion of the concentrated oxygen gas product and produces, when active, a mixture of ozone gas and oxygen as a third product;

wherein the air source system comprises:

a first air compressor configured to generate compressed air;

an air cooler coupled with the first air compressor to receive the compressed air and wherein the air cooler is configured to cool the compressed air; and

a water separator coupled with the air cooler, wherein the water separator is configured to receive the cooled compressed air and to separate out water from the cooled, compressed air producing dry, cool, compressed air as the first gas product;

wherein the oxygen source system comprises:

a second air compressor configured to generate compressed air;

a second air cooler coupled with the second air compressor wherein the second air cooler is configured to receive the compressed air and cool the compressed air from the second air compressor;

a second water separator coupled with the second air cooler, wherein the second water separator is configured to receive the cooled, compressed air from the second air cooler and separate out water from the cooled, compressed air producing from the second air cooler; and

an oxygen concentrator coupled with the water separator, wherein the oxygen concentrator is configured to receive the dry, cool, compressed air and separate out the oxygen to produce an oxygen gas product as the second gas product;

wherein the system further comprises:

an oxygen purity meter configured to monitor oxygen purity of the oxygen gas product and to provide oxygen purity information to the controller regarding the measured purity information;

wherein the controller is configured to track an amount of the one or more gas products delivered and make adjustments based on the received oxygen purity information.

2. A system for use in remediating contaminants, the system comprising:

a plurality of gas product sources positioned at a geographic location to be treated;

a distribution manifold coupled with the plurality of product sources;

a plurality of diffusers coupled with and spaced over the distribution manifold, wherein each of the diffusers is positioned within a separate well within the soil proximate an area to be remediated; and

a controller coupled with the plurality of product sources and the distribution manifold, wherein the controller:

activates one or more of the product sources to generate, locally at the geographic location, one of five different gas products in accordance with a first step of a treatment schedule; and

communicates with the distribution manifold to direct the one of the five gas products to a predefined one of the diffuser in accordance with the treatment schedule;

wherein the controller is further configured to control the plurality of gas products sources such that the plurality of gas product sources collectively are configured to generate locally at the geographic location to be treated the five different gas products;

wherein the controller is further configured to:

identify, as defined in the treatment schedule and corresponding to a first step, a first gas product of the five different gas products to be generated and delivered to the geographic location;

detect a condition that inhibits the delivery of the first gas product in accordance with the first step; and

implement a regression strategy comprising:

halting the delivery of the first gas product;

identifying a second gas product of the five different gas products, where the second gas product is different than the first gas product; and

overriding the treatment schedule and continuing to implement the first step while delivering the second gas product in place of the first gas product.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the controller, in identifying the second gas product, is further configured to:

identify a condition that inhibits the delivery of the first gas product; and

identify the second gas product such that the condition is isolated and does not interfere with the delivery of the second gas product.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the controller, in identifying the condition that inhibits the delivery of the first gas product, is further configured to:

identify a problem with an ozone product source, wherein the first gas product comprises a mix of a plurality of gas products including ozone gas and oxygen gas; and

identify the second gas product that does not include ozone.

5. The system of claim 2 , further comprising:

one or more liquid product sources;

a liquid distribution manifold coupled with the one or more liquid product sources; and

one or more liquid valves cooperated with the liquid distribution manifold configured to distribute one or more liquid products over some or all of the area to be remediated;

wherein the controller further couples with the one or more liquid product sources and the one or more liquid valves, wherein the controller is configured to:

activates at least one of the one or more liquid product sources to provide, locally at the geographic location, at least one liquid product in accordance with a second step of the treatment schedule; and

controls at least one of the one or more liquid valves to direct the at least one liquid product to distribute the at least one liquid over some or all of the area to be remediated in accordance with the treatment schedule.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the controller is configured to identify, in accordance with a first step of the treatment schedule, the one gas product of the five different gas products to be delivered to the soil formation;

cause the activation of the one or more of the gas product sources to generate, locally at the geographic location and in response to identifying the one gas product, the one of five different gas products; and

cause the communicates of the one of the five different gas products to the distribution manifold to direct the one of the five different gas products to the predefined one of the diffuser in accordance with the treatment schedule.

Assignments (10)

Continuity (1)