Liquid purification or separation – Processes – Treatment by living organism
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-23
2001-11-27
Simmons, David A. (Department: 1724)
Liquid purification or separation
Processes
Treatment by living organism
C210S747300, C047S05900R
Reexamination Certificate
active
06322699
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL ASPECTS
This process is applicable to domestic and industrial wastewater treatment, treatment of eutrophicating effluents, treatment of effluents containing pollutants which can be removed by aquatic macrophytes.
PRIOR STATE OF THE ART
Conventional wastewater treatment processes are capable of removing organic matter by means of the sedimentation of the suspended solids during primary treatment and by means of microorganisms fixed to inert media or free in the water which are subjected to natural or artificial aeration in secondary treatment. The removal of mineral elements (tertiary treatment) is a highly expensive process if carried out using conventional processes (chemical precipitation), as a result of which a large majority of treatment plants do not avail of this type of treatment and discharge water rich in mineral elements, which contributes to the eutrophication of the watercourses and reservoirs (mainly due to the nitrogen and phosphorus involved). Environmental protection laws are becoming progressively more stringent with regard to requiring that the concentration of these elements in the waters discharged into public watercourses be lowered.
What are known as “Green Filter” treatment systems employ inert media such as peat or plant species grown in specific soils or substrates (gravel or sand in most cases) onto which the effluents are discharged. Some of these systems employ “emergent macrophyte” plants which grow naturally along the riverbanks and in marshlands, but are always conceived as being rooted in the soil or in an inert substrate, as a result of which the surface area of the roots in contact with the water is quite a great deal less than in the case of a floating root system which is bathed all over by the water. Another drawback involved in these systems based on plants which have taken root is how difficult it is to harvest all of the plant matter produced (which contains all of the mineral elements removed from the water), given that solely that part which is above the water line is harvested , the biomass of the roots and of the base of the stems remaining in the soil.
The treatment systems based on the use of floating plants have employed species which are buoyant by nature, such as the water hyacinth (
Eichornia crassipes
) or the Lemnaceae (genuses Lemma, Wolffia, Spirodella, etc.), but have not afforded good results. In the case of the water hyacinth, which is a tropical species that can comprise a hazard in warm climates for the channels and wetlands if any of these plants is allowed to grow out of control as a result of its being fast-spreading; and in mild, continental zones, it dies off in the wintertime. As far as the Lemnaceae and other similar species are concerned, due to the fact that they are not extremely high-yield, their water treatment effect is also scant.
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Clark & Brody
Prince Fred
Simmons David A.
Universidad Politecnica de Madrid
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