Residual water treatment microplant for small flows

Details Residual water treatment microplant for small flows Residual water treatment microplant for small flows

1999-10-29

2001-04-03

Upton, Christopher (Department: 1724)

Liquid purification or separation

Processes

Treatment by living organism

C210S622000, C210S151000, C210S195100, C210S252000, C210S903000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06210578

ABSTRACT:

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In the worldwide setting there is the serious problem of how to dispose of residual waters generated in urban, industrial and agricultural centers. In the case of domestic residual waters, the problem becomes worse because part of the population does not have drainage. This situation appears when there it has a high construction cost due to the nature of the terrain, when populated areas grown at a rate higher than urbanization, or in the case of a broad dispersion of residential houses.
In order to limit environmental pollution by the unloading of residual waters, in these cases it is possible to utilize microplants that carry on water treatment at the unloading source. Besides, the demand for this equipment is potentially large, due to future needs of water reutilization.
Although one of the most important applications of microplants resides in the in situ treatment of residual waters from residential houses (preferential application of the invention), these treatment plants may be applied in the same way in condominiums or private homes, sports clubs, hotels and restaurants, offices and shopping malls, hospitals, constructions, or in toll collection booths sanitary facilities on highways, and similar uses. Treatment microplants may be oriented, and such is the case of this invention, towards treated water generation for its reutilization in activities like watering green areas, washing floors, ornamental fountains, washing cars, flushing sanitary facilities, and so forth. With this, considerable savings in drinking water are obtained for first use activities.
The offer of microplants existing on the market does not satisfy entirely the required conditions regarding simplicity of operation, and particularly economic conditions with respect to accessible cost, especially when speaking of an application in a residential home.
Users of this type of treatment plants require that the following titles be considered in the design of this equipment:
The treatment plant should have dimensions permitting its installation and operation at a single family level and/or in places with reduced space and certain margins of growth in case of increase in residual water unloading.
The treatment plant should be economical in its investment and especially in the resources allotted to its operation and maintenance. Treatment efficiency should comply with the standards in force. Preventive and corrective maintenance conditions should be minimal and for the most part capable of being effected by the users themselves.
The treatment plant should not cause inconvenience to the user with respect to bad smells, noise and proliferation of insects and animals in general. In case of need, the facility with minimum additions and complexity should provide treated water for reutilization in the plot of land or inside the house.
On the market there are a variety of package treatment plants. It is difficult for them to comply with all of the requirements outlined above. This invention is oriented towards the satisfactory fulfillment of these requirements.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The known background regarding the state of the art in the matter of residual water treatment especially applied for residential houses, refers to systems that involve in their process train septic pits with airy systems, for the most part of the activated mud type, and airy packed zones oriented basically towards elimination of organic matter.
This invention, differing from treatment plants that it is common to find on the market, combines a high rate anaerobic digestion zone by means of two anaerobic filter chambers, followed by a packed aerobic zone, made up of more than two compartments in series, which allow for air conditioning extension in order to carry out nitrification. The treatment plant compartments are designed in such a way as to permit an adequate distribution of the water through the treatment train, diminishing considerably the inactive zones inside the treatment tanks. All compartments are integrated into a compact design that requires little space for its location and facilitates its operation and maintenance.
In order to support the innovative aspects of this invention, we have identified some treatment microplants offered on the market, which may or may not be protected by a patent.
FIG. 1
presents the features of these treatment plants, and they are compared to the treatment plant subject matter of this patent application. The information concerning these treatment plants was extracted from their commercial catalogues.
The following Table 1 indicates the patents that were found as background and in force within the state of the art, such as was revealed in a search for the state of the art of U.S. patents.
TABLE 1
U.S. PATENT REFERENCES
U.S. PAT. NO.
INVENTOR
DATE
TITLE
U.S. PAT. NO.
Mullerheim
March 4,
Filtration System for
4191647
Williams
1980
Home Drainage
U.S. PAT. NO.
Colwell
March 17,
“In Situ” Residual
4251359
Freeman
1981
Water Treatment
System
U.S. PAT. NO.
Laak
Aug. 14,
Drainage System for
4465594
1984
Segregated Residual
Water Treatment
U.S. PAT. NO.
Ueda
Aug. 31,
Residual Water
5240597
1993
Treatment Equitment
U.S. PAT. NO.
Kuwashima
Aug. 30,
Method and Apparatus
5342523
1994
to Purify Tap Water
U.S. PAT. NO.
Kallenbach
July 9,
Method and Apparatus
5534147
Buchanan
1996
to Purify Wastes
Gooddrich
Skinner
Poncelet
Kallenbach
FIG. 1
shows that the great majority of treatment plants have an area for receiving crude sewage residual water inside what is considered the treatment plant in itself, under the framework of a compact design in which a single tank involves the various phases of treatment. In this sense, the plants corresponding to numbers
3
,
5
and
10
in
FIG. 1
specify a residual water receiving tank or conventional septic pits as a unit extra to what is in itself the package plant for water treatment, which is also a specification of the plant herein described.
No plant, except for plant
3
(FIG.
1
), has a treatment zone based on a high-rate anaerobic reactor such as the anaerobic filter. Plant number
3
bases residual water treatment only on an anaerobic treatment, which limits its pollutant removal efficacy. Differently from the other treatment plants, this invention has 2 zones in series, based on anaerobic filters, which provide greater capability to absorb organic crests and limit biological mud production.
On the other hand, it is also possible to observe that most plants base water treatment on aerobic processes only, such as the activated mud, the percolator filter and the submerged filter. Differently from these plants, the plant subject matter of this invention bases its treatment on the combination of high-rate anaerobic and aerobic processes (2 anaerobic filters followed by at least 2 aerated, submerged-filter type zones). These provide versatility for adaptation of the microplant to fluctuating conditions in organic matter concentration, type of pollutants and residual water discharges. These conditions are frequently found in the in situ treatment of residual waters with small flows.
Water recirculation between the aerobic and anaerobic zones in the microplant permits to carry out the partial elimination of nitrogen from water by means of nitrification and denitrification. Plant
6
of
FIG. 1
performs nitrification and denitrification, but by means of a completely mixed system of lot operation. The other treatment plants do not report in their respective documents the capability to denitrify, and only some nitrify, which implies ammonia nitrogen oxidation but not elimination of nitrogen from the water.
Plants number
7
and
12
in
FIG. 1
effect water and sedimented mud recirculation up to the crude sewage water receipt zone by means of pumps in the first case and an “airlift” system in the second, with the intention of storing and treating the mud. In these arrangements, the substrate-microorganism interaction in a septic pit is poor; therefore, no high yields are accomplished in denitrification. Differently from these plants, the mic

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