Liquid purification or separation – Processes – Including controlling process in response to a sensed condition
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-26
2001-05-01
Drodge, Joseph W. (Department: 1723)
Liquid purification or separation
Processes
Including controlling process in response to a sensed condition
C210S096100, C210S101000, C137S003000, C137S088000, C366S152100, C366S160100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06224778
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of water-treatment systems, and more particularly to systems for converting reclaimed water into treated water useful for watering parkways, highway borders, crop irrigation, and other uses.
In a different aspect of the invention, the present invention relates to the field of fluid mixing systems, and more particularly systems for converting water-based fluid components into fluid products, such as paints, fluid varnishes and other coatings, medicaments, beverages etc., wherein said water based fluid products have certain pre-established qualities, such as color, viscosity, water content, flavor, salinity etc.
2. Description of Related Art
Water conservation, as well as anti-pollution laws and regulations are in effect in many parts of the United States and in many countries outside the United States. Often these requirements are addressed together with the use of treated, but non-potable, reclaimed, typically referred to as “treated water”. Typical of such uses are the watering of golf courses, parks and highway borders and median strips, and the irrigation of some types of crops.
As above mentioned, the reclaimed water, which may comprise sanitized water from sewage plants and industrial processes, or certain types of run-offs, requires a certain amount of treatment or additional treatment in order to bring the reclaimed water up to acceptable treated water standards. This requirement typically involves two problems: the pre-treated effluent may vary from time-to-time, and/or in location-to-location, in such parameters as pH, the amount of total dissolved solids (TDS), and the flow rate, and the treated water requirements as to the foregoing may be different in different locations and may even vary in a given locality according to the intended use.
Because of the variables involved with both the innate quality of the reclaimed water and the requirements for the treated water, the treatment of a flow of reclaimed water with just the minimal amount of clean treatment water to provide a treated water meeting the pre-established quality levels has been difficult if not impossible to provide in an economical manner.
The present inventor has described a system for treating reclaimed water to provide treated water and a method of using said system to provide treated water from reclaimed water. (See U.S. Pat. No. 5,641,410 to Peltzer which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.) It has been found to be possible to convert many existing waste water treating systems into systems which can be utilized to practice the method of U.S. Pat. No. 5,641,410 and other similar methods of converting reclaimed water into potable water.
It is also desirable to construct new waste water treating systems to practice the method of U.S. Pat. No. 5,641,410 and other similar methods of converting reclaimed water into potable water.
In addition, the present inventor has discovered new and useful ways of converting water-based fluid components of a fluid product into a fluid product exhibiting certain desired pre-established qualities or characteristics.
It is therefore, a principal objective of the present invention to provide a method of constructing an effective and efficient system for converting fluid components into a final fluid product having a pre-defined or pre-established quality or characteristic by mixing an amount of a first fluid component with a second fluid component.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a method of mixing fluid components to obtain a water-based fluid product, wherein at least one of said fluid components is a water-based fluid component and wherein the fluid product exhibits particular, desirable, pre-established characteristics or qualities.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a fluid mixing system having multiple mixing stages wherein the qualities of the combined waters or other fluids may be monitored along intermediate mixing stages.
Other objects and advantages of the instant invention will be apparent from a careful reading of the specification below.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a method of manufacturing a water treatment system for providing a flow of treated water having a pre-established quality from a flow of reclaimed water having a quality poorer than said pre-established quality of said treated water and a flow of treatment water having a quality better than said pre-established quality of said treated water said water qualities based on parameters including relative conductivity or TDS values, said method comprising:
a. providing a mixing reservoir;
b. connecting first and second fluid conduits to said mixing reservoir for respectively flowing said reclaimed water and said treatment water into said mixing reservoir;
c. connecting a third fluid conduit to said mixing reservoir for discharging a flow of treated water from said mixing reservoir;
d. providing sensing means for sensing parameters including (1) the flow rate and quality of the reclaimed water entering the mixing reservoir through said first fluid conduit, (2) the flow rate and quality of the treatment water entering the mixing reservoir through said second fluid conduit, and (3) the quality of the treated water being discharged from said mixing reservoir through said third fluid conduit, said sensing means including separate water conductivity measuring means installed in said first and second fluid conduits upstream of said mixing reservoir and in said third fluid conduit downstream of said mixing reservoir;
e. providing signal generating means responsive to said separate conductivity measuring means for providing signals indicative of the TDS levels in said reclaimed water, in said treatment water and in said treated water and indicative of said sensed water flow rates; and
f. providing control means responsive to said provided signals for regulating the flows of reclaimed water and treatment water into said mixing reservoir through said first and second fluid conduits so as to cause the quality of the treated water discharged from said mixing reservoir through said third fluid conduit to be at least about as good as said pre-established treated water quality, said pre-established treated water quality including a pre-established maximum TDS level.
The present invention also provides a method for converting an existing water treatment system to provide a flow of treated water having a pre-established quality from a flow of reclaimed water having a quality poorer than said pre-established quality of said treated water and a flow of treatment water having a quality better than said pre-established quality of said treated water said water qualities based on parameters including relative conductivity or TDS values wherein said existing water treatment system comprises:
g. a mixing reservoir;
h. first and second fluid conduits connected to said mixing reservoir for respectively flowing said reclaimed water and said treatment water into said mixing reservoir; and
i. a third fluid conduit connected to said mixing reservoir for discharging a flow of treated water from said mixing reservoir; which method comprises
d. providing sensing means for sensing parameters including (1) the flow rate and quality of the reclaimed water entering the mixing reservoir through said first fluid conduit, (2) the flow rate and quality of the treatment water entering the mixing reservoir through said second fluid conduit, and (3) the quality of the treated water being discharged from said mixing reservoir through said third fluid conduit, said sensing means including separate water conductivity measuring means installed in said first and second fluid conduits upstream of said mixing reservoir and in said third fluid conduit downstream of said mixing reservoir;
e. providing signal generating means responsive to said separate conductivity measuring means for providing signals indicative of the TDS levels in said reclaimed water, in said
Drodge Joseph W.
Hackler Walter A.
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