Liquid purification or separation – Flow – fluid pressure or material level – responsive – Float
Reexamination Certificate
2001-10-15
2002-07-23
Barry, Chester T. (Department: 1724)
Liquid purification or separation
Flow, fluid pressure or material level, responsive
Float
C210S242300
Reexamination Certificate
active
06423214
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a wastewater treatment tank with influent gates (to create turbulent flow and reduce influent flow velocity) and a pre-react zone director having an outwardly flared lower portion. The pre-react zone director causes laminar flow of influent below a settling blanket of sludge to avoid disturbing the blanket, thus allowing the blanket to function as a filter and resulting in a clearer supernatant than in conventional tanks.
Wastewater treatment facilities play an important role in society. As urban and rural populations continue to grow, however, these facilities become increasingly overtaxed and unable to meet the demands placed upon them. These increased demands cause many current wastewater treatment plants to operate near or at capacity. In addition, many treatment facilities were originally constructed decades ago, and utilize technology that is currently failing. Failing or inadequate treatment facilities pose an environmental concern, especially in light of increasingly stringent municipal, state, and federal environmental standards.
Due to the odious nature of wastewater treatment facilities, these facilities have often been constructed far from the sources of sewage to minimize exposure to populated areas. As a result, long sewage lines are needed to connect treatment plants to sewage sources. However, the acidic, corrosive and septic nature of wastewater, including hydrogen sulfide gas, which naturally occurs during the wastewater treatment process, causes the breakdown and failure of long sewage pipes.
To alleviate these problems, many areas have undertaken to either construct more treatment facilities, or to increase the efficiency of existing facilities. The construction of new facilities, however, may be blocked by those who fear the negative impact of such a facility in close proximity to urban or rural areas, such as the emanation of offensive odors, and the potential risk of untreated wastewater spillage. Increasing the efficiency of existing plants can come at great cost, and also poses the risk of interrupting current service.
In order to increase efficiency, and to lower consumer costs, many areas have privatized wastewater services. However, like any business, these private wastewater plants must be economically viable, and are faced with maintenance, energy, and other costs, which reduce profits and impede business growth.
Rapid development and population growth of third world countries also pose a significant sanitation and health risk, as wastewater needs cannot be met by current services. Therefore, these areas are especially in need of low cost, highly efficient wastewater treatment plants.
BACKGROUND ART
U.S. Pat. No. 5,302,289 to McClung, et al., discloses a wastewater treatment facility having an inlet in which there are a plurality of downwardly angled structures in a downcomer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,230,570 to Irving discloses an aerator having an inlet having a downward and outward direction at the bottom, and adjacent inlet air provided by a manifold.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,051,213 to Weske discloses a method and apparatus for mixing fluids, which includes tines that are adjacent to gas inlets.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,162,971 to Zlokarnik, et al., discloses the use of deflecting elements to mix liquids and gas.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,081,368 to Block, et al., discloses the use of staggered partitions in treating wastewater.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,505,820 to Eertink discloses the use of multiple separate bioreactors in treating wastewater.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,705,634 to Reimann, et al., discloses the mixing of wastewater and activated sludge in the presence of carrier particles for microorganisms.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,136,023 to Kirk, et al., discloses an apparatus for wastewater treatment in which oxygenated wastewater is directed out through an adjustable flap.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,688,400 to Baxter, Sr. discloses a waste liquid treatment plant, which includes aeration for downwardly flowing liquid, air nozzles, and a conical section.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,804,255 to Speece discloses a recycling gas contact apparatus for waste material, which includes a downflow conducting cone member and bubble injector.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,421,648 to Besik discloses a single reaction tank in a single suspended growth sludge system that includes a conical shaped outlet section.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,452,701 to Garrett, et al., discloses an open-bottomed stilling chamber above an open-topped chamber with a conical outlet.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide methods and apparatus for a wastewater treatment system, having influent gates and pre-react zone with outwardly flared lower portion to achieve tertiary treatment results (at least in certain fields of use) from a secondary treatment facility using a single tank. In this connection, primary treatment is usually understood to include settling and anaerobic processes, secondary treatment is usually understood to include aerobic processes, and tertiary treatment is usually understood to include filtering.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide methods and apparatus for low-cost, high-efficiency wastewater treatment systems.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide a process and apparatus that substantially reduces production of sewage sludge.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide a process and apparatus that reduces energy consumption by reducing the number of pumps and blowers needed for operation.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide an apparatus with minimal moving parts.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide such methods and apparatus that combines processes to eliminate the need for multiple stage components, thereby eliminating the odors, maintenance and land requirements, and other costs associated with multi-stage complex wastewater systems.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide methods and apparatus resulting in more nutrient and chemical removal than previous wastewater systems.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide methods and apparatus which is simple in construction and operation so that malfunctions can be easily and quickly diagnosed to reduce the costs of repair and maintenance.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide methods and apparatus that are scalable so that multiple smaller decentralized plants can be used instead of large centralized plants with long pipelines, which allows geographic dispersal of such plants and reduction of peak flows of effluent in particular areas.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide methods and apparatus that allow plants of particular capacity to be constructed using up to 50% less land.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide methods and apparatus that can be operated with less manpower.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide methods and apparatus that allow multiple modular plants with continuous influent flow and intermittent decanting to allow the environment to recover between decants, and allows multiple staggered decanting so that common effluent facilities need only have the capacity to handle one or two (or more, but less than all) modules at a time.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide methods and apparatus that can be easily retrofittable to existing properly sized basins.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide methods and apparatus that denitrify the system by both aerobic and anaerobic processes to avoid algae blooms.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
These and other objects are achieved by a device to treat influent that includes a basin with an influent gate housing in the basin to receive influent. Influent gates are mounted inside the influent gate housing so that influent flows over the influent gates, creating turbulent flow and aeration in the influent, and reducing flow velocity of the influent. An influent gate bottom is mounted in the basin under the influent gate housing so that influent exiting the bott
Barry Chester T.
Hsia Martin E.
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