Liquid purification or separation – Structural installation – Closed circulating system
Patent
1996-11-08
1998-09-01
Lithgow, Thomas M.
Liquid purification or separation
Structural installation
Closed circulating system
2102212, 2104162, 261 28, 261 84, 261 93, 261DIG42, 119261, 119263, 366103, 366293, 415 90, 415200R, 415200A, A01K 6304, C02F 124
Patent
active
058007040
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention relates to a foam flotation separator, in particular a foam flotation protein separator for sea water aquaria, and to an impeller for a dispersion pump for dispersing gas such as air and/or ozone in water for foam flotation separators of the above-mentioned type.
A preferred field of application of such foam flotation separators is in sea water aquaria, which have to be constantly filtered in order to maintain satisfactory water quality. Of the different types of filtration foam flotation protein removal has proved particularly worthwhile and has been adopted in various forms.
In this process the water is brought into contact with very fine bubbles of air on which organic pollutants are taken up. The air bubbles collect as a stable foam on the surface of the apparatus, from which they can be removed.
In foam flotation protein removal a particular problem arises in the introduction of the gas, as a rule air, which may be enriched with ozone, into the water. For this purpose various methods are known: of the pump gas on the intake side of the pump and mix the air bubbles with the water at an impeller wheel in the pump housing and so comminute them.
PRIOR ART
All known devices and processes have some considerable disadvantages. Thus distributor blocks are very maintenance intensive and need to be frequently replaced. Installations with venturi nozzles need high pressure at the injector and are therefore wasteful of energy, particularly for small installations, since they need relatively large and powerful pumps with a correspondingly greater power consumption. While the installations operating on the disperser principle give satisfactory results even in the case of small installations, hitherto known devices nevertheless generate a considerable amount of noise and cause considerable difficulty in adjusting the equilibrium between the amounts of gas or air and water delivered. In the case of many foam flotation separators found in aquaria air bubbles get into the aquarium together with the purified water, which can have harmful effects on the occupants of the aquarium, particularly when ozone is used in the foam separator.
From German Utility Model 92 09 563 a protein-trapping device operating on the disperser principle is known which draws in the air with normal impeller wheel pumps. Here the air output can in some cases and in particular circumstances be satisfactory, but in operation these devices generate a considerable volume of noise, and buzzing sounds occur. In addition the known devices operating on this principle cannot be adapted to different pumps or outputs.
United States specification 3 669 883 discloses a foam flotation protein separator having in the relevant region a cylindrically shaped reaction chamber which is closed at the bottom. This known device is operated on the centrifugal principle, wherein an outer, bubble-free zone is created while the inner liquid column is resolved into the desired separated products. As a result this apparatus, too, suffers from the noise problem mentioned, quite apart from the fact that the separating action leaves something to be desired owing to the occurrence of vortex formation.
THE INVENTION
It is therefore the object of the present invention to improve the dispersion principle so that it can be used in a low-noise manner and so that the escape of air bubbles into the aquarium is reduced or the supply of air is optimised.
This object is achieved by the features of the main claim.
A particular feature of the invention consists in the cross sectional enlargement of the preferably tubular reaction chamber, for in this region the rate of flow of the gas-water mixture introduced into the reaction tube is reduced because of the enlargement of the cross-section, so that the air bubbles come to a standstill and even ascend, and do not leave the reaction tube with the stream of water but pass into the collector with the particles which are to be removed adhering to them.
In another embodiment of the invention a prefilter is fit
REFERENCES:
patent: 3669883 (1972-06-01), Huckstedt
patent: 3772192 (1973-11-01), Huckstedt
patent: 3904393 (1975-09-01), Morse
patent: 3957017 (1976-05-01), Carmignani
patent: 4834872 (1989-05-01), Overath
patent: 5282962 (1994-02-01), Chen
patent: 5484525 (1996-01-01), Mowka
Moe, Jr, Martin A., "The Marine Aquariuan Reference"; pp. 272-287. Copyright 1989, Martin A. Moe Jr., Green Turtle Publications, Plantation Florida.
AquaMedic Anlagenbau GmbH
Lithgow Thomas M.
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