Liquid purification or separation – With gas-liquid surface contact means
Reexamination Certificate
2002-02-20
2004-06-15
Upton, Christopher (Department: 1724)
Liquid purification or separation
With gas-liquid surface contact means
C210S170050, C210S532200, C210S615000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06749745
ABSTRACT:
In a first aspect, this invention relates to typically aerobic, microbial treatment of mainly domestic sewage and other wastewaters, and to the renovation of polluted water in general.
THE FIRST ASPECT OF THE INVENTION, IN RELATION TO THE PRIOR ART
One common arrangement for treating wastewater has the following elements or stations: (a) an anaerobic digester station; (b) an aeration station; and (c) an infiltration station. In that case, the first aspect of the invention may preferably be utilised in the aeration station.
Water entering an aeration station may be water that has just emerged from a septic tank. Here, solid materials in the wastewater can settle out, and reductive breakdown reactions can take place, which break down much of the organic content of the wastewater, both solid and dissolved. Dissolved ammonium in the water is largely not affected by passage through the septic tank. Water emerging from a well-engineered septic tank has only a small undissolved (i.e solid) organic content. One of the functions of the aeration station is to remove the remaining dissolved organic content.
In the aeration station, the oxidation reactions can take place. In passing through a well-engineered aeration station, the carbonaceous-BOD content is oxidised to inconsequential liquids and gases. Also, ammonium in the water can be oxidised in an aeration station.
The infiltration station mainly serves the mechanical purpose of infiltrating the water into the ground, rather than serving to promote treatment reactions. An infiltration station is well engineered if water infiltrates into the ground without disruption to the ground and without clogging, etc, over a long service life.
In traditional septic-tank wastewater treatment systems, the aeration station and the infiltration station have been combined in a single structure, comprising a tile-bed soakaway. The first aspect of the present invention relates to treatment systems in which the aeration station is a separate structure from the infiltration station, and follows generally from the technologies disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,707,513 5,762,784 5,980,739 5,997,747 6,063,268 6,156,094.
In its first aspect, the present invention is aimed mainly at providing a new form of treatment station in which the water is presented most efficaciously to a body of treatment material. One aim is to improve the efficiency of utilisation of premium space. The invention, in its first aspect, may be utilised generally for removing contaminants from water, but the advantages of the invention are very marked in the case of the aerobic treatment station, to vigorously promote the carbonaceous-BOD oxidation reactions, and this first aspect of the invention is described mainly as it relates to an aeration station. It is intended that an aeration station, in this new form, should require no more input of ingredients or energy, and no more attention or service, than is required in traditional conventional septic tank systems. (It should be understood, in this context, that conventional septic treatment systems sometimes include electric pumps and other active components, and septic systems commonly need to be serviced every year or two.)
In the first preferred aspect of the invention, the aeration station has a long, narrow configuration. So much so, that it preferably becomes convenient to fit the aeration station into a pipe. In a preferred arrangement, which will be described, the aeration station is located in a pipe that transfers water from the effluent port of the septic tank to the ground-infiltration station. Unlike conventional tile-beds, the aeration stations as described herein are generally not suitable for serving double duty as ground-infiltration stations. It is mainly in the smaller size of aeration station, that the long
arrow configuration can provide large gains in efficiency, for example in single-dwelling domestic installations, or an installation for handling, say, six dwellings, or a small institutional installation, such as a restaurant or golf course. The advantages of the invention are not so marked in the case of e.g municipal-sized treatment facilities.
Hitherto, it has not been practical to configure a water treatment station to fit in a pipe. It has not previously been proposed how the constraints associated with flow through a pipe might be overcome. Treatment reactions require vigorous colonies of microbes, and it may be considered impractical to house the colonies of microbes actually in the pipe. It has been considered that a pipe is for moving water, not for treating water.
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