Southern Company Services, Inc.

James C Redwine

David W Morris

John D Pugh

David L Drummonds

The various embodiments of the present invention relate generally to remediation of contaminants in the environment, and more specifically to improved chemistries, systems, and methods for in-situ immobilization of contaminants in various media. More particularly, an aspect of the present invention is directed to an in-situ method for immobilizing a contaminant in a medium, comprising: contacting a medium in-situ with a chemical reagent, the medium comprising a contaminant, wherein the contacting the medium in-situ with a chemical reagent does not involve physical mixing of the medium and the chemical reagent; and immobilizing at least a portion of the contaminant in the medium in-situ to yield an immobilized contaminant in the medium, wherein the immobilized contaminant in the medium is neither extracted from the medium nor degraded by the chemical reagent.

In-situ systems and methods for the immobilization of contaminants

The invention relates to a method for removing a contaminant in situ from soil containing the contaminant, by contacting the soil containing the contaminant with a reagent in situ to remove the contaminant from the soil and form a mixture; removing the mixture from the soil; and removing the contaminant from the mixture, wherein the reagent is not citric acid. The invention further relates to a method for removing a contaminant in situ from soil containing the contaminant, by contacting the soil containing the contaminant with a reagent in situ and mobilizing the contaminant by electroremediation to form a mixture containing the contaminant; and removing the contaminant from the mixture. The invention further relates to a method for removing a contaminant from soil in situ containing the contaminant, by contacting the soil containing the contaminant with a chelate in situ to form a mixture containing a contaminant-chelate complex; removing the mixture from the soil; and contacting the mixture with an ion exchange resin, whereby the contaminant-chelate complex is separated from the mixture. The invention further relates to a method of removing a contaminant in situ from soil containing the contaminant, by contacting the soil containing the contaminant in situ with a chelate to form a first mixture containing a contaminant-chelate complex; removing the first mixture from the soil; chemically destroying the contaminant-chelate complex of the first mixture to produce a second mixture containing the contaminant; and removing the contaminant from the second mixture.

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Vestavia Hills, AL, United States of America

James C Redwine