Patents by Inventor Poonam R. Kulkarni

Poonam R. Kulkarni has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11679999
    Abstract: A method for the decontamination of water containing one or more PFAS, having the steps of generating colloidal gas aphrons (CGAs) by mixing a gas, water, and one or more surfactants together with high shear forces, introducing the CGAs and a PFAS-containing water in an enclosed space where the CGAs move upwards through the water due to their inherent buoyancy, allowing the plurality of CGAs to extract PFAS from the water, and separating the PFAS-containing CGAs from the surface of the water in the enclosed space for further treatment or disposal, leaving the water with lower PFAS concentrations in the vessel. The aphrons may be anionic or cationic and created by mixing speeds or surfactant concentration, and treatment may be with gas bubbles to remove PFAS from water gas bubbles or destruction of PFAS by plasma reactor or deployed in situ through wells into geologic ground formations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2023
    Assignee: GSI Environmental Inc.
    Inventors: Charles J. Newell, Poonam R. Kulkarni, Hassan Javed, Nicholas W. Johnson, Stephen D. Richardson
  • Publication number: 20230110561
    Abstract: A method for the decontamination of water containing one or more PFAS, having the steps of generating colloidal gas aphrons (CGAs) by mixing a gas, water, and one or more surfactants together with high shear forces, introducing the CGAs and a PFAS-containing water in an enclosed space where the CGAs move upwards through the water due to their inherent buoyancy, allowing the plurality of CGAs to extract PFAS from the water, and separating the PFAS-containing CGAs from the surface of the water in the enclosed space for further treatment or disposal, leaving the water with lower PFAS concentrations in the vessel. The aphrons may be anionic or cationic and created by mixing speeds or surfactant concentration, and treatment may be with gas bubbles to remove PFAS from water gas bubbles or destruction of PFAS by plasma reactor or deployed in situ through wells into geologic ground formations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 11, 2022
    Publication date: April 13, 2023
    Inventors: Charles J. Newell, Poonam R. Kulkarni, Hassan Javed, Nicholas W. Johnson, Stephen D. Richardson
  • Publication number: 20230063935
    Abstract: A method for the decontamination of water containing one or more PFAS, having the steps of generating colloidal gas aphrons (CGAs) by mixing a gas, water, and one or more surfactants together with high shear forces, introducing the CGAs and a PFAS-containing water in an enclosed space where the CGAs move upwards through the water due to their inherent buoyancy, allowing the plurality of CGAs to extract PFAS from the water, and separating the PFAS-containing CGAs from the surface of the water in the enclosed space for further treatment or disposal, leaving the water with lower PFAS concentrations in the vessel. The aphrons may be anionic or cationic and created by mixing speeds or surfactant concentration, and treatment may be with gas bubbles to remove PFAS from water gas bubbles or destruction of PFAS by plasma reactor or deployed in situ through wells into geologic ground formations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 15, 2022
    Publication date: March 2, 2023
    Inventors: Charles J. Newell, Poonam R. Kulkarni, Hassan Javed, Nicholas W. Johnson, Stephen D. Richardson
  • Publication number: 20210214241
    Abstract: A decontamination method for subsurface aquifers having per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contaminants by injecting gas through a screened well or open tube through a porous media to form buoyant material where the PFAS contaminants accumulate on and/or in the buoyant material and rise to the water table or top of the aquifer with PFAS that desorbs from the buoyant material and concentrates in the shallow groundwater, and extracting or sequestering the groundwater near the water table or top of the confined aquifer and/or collecting the buoyant material for treatment. The method may include treatment of aquifer material consisting of gravel, sand, silt, clay, or fractured geologic media, or combination, and extraction through phytoremediation, groundwater extraction wells, wellpoint systems, or groundwater extraction trenches and include a seal and/or check valve near the water table in the trench to selectively permit water and buoyant material to flow upward.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 4, 2020
    Publication date: July 15, 2021
    Inventors: Charles J. Newell, David T. Adamson, Poonam R. Kulkarni, John A. Connor
  • Patent number: 10094719
    Abstract: Devices and methods for measuring subsurface thermal fluxes and for estimating a rate of change in the amount of a reactive material within a subsurface formation using the measured thermal fluxes are described herein. The methods of measuring subsurface thermal fluxes may use at least one array of temperature sensors distributed along a vertical transect projecting from the surface and into the subsurface of a region of interest. Methods of estimating a rate of change in the amount of a reactive material within a portion of the region of interest based on perturbations of the thermal profile within the subsurface due to an endothermic or exothermic degradation of the reactive material within the portion of the region of interest are also described herein.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2018
    Assignees: GSI Environmental, Inc., Colorado State University Research Foundation
    Inventors: Thomas C. Sale, Emily B. Stockwell, Charles J. Newell, Poonam R. Kulkarni
  • Publication number: 20150233773
    Abstract: Devices and methods for measuring subsurface thermal fluxes and for estimating a rate of change in the amount of a reactive material within a subsurface formation using the measured thermal fluxes are described herein. The methods of measuring subsurface thermal fluxes may use at least one array of temperature sensors distributed along a vertical transect projecting from the surface and into the subsurface of a region of interest. Methods of estimating a rate of change in the amount of a reactive material within a portion of the region of interest based on perturbations of the thermal profile within the subsurface due to an endothermic or exothermic degradation of the reactive material within the portion of the region of interest are also described herein.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 18, 2015
    Publication date: August 20, 2015
    Applicants: Colorado State University Research Foundation, GSI Environmental, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas C. Sale, Emily B. Stockwell, Charles J. Newell, Poonam R. Kulkarni