Liquid purification or separation – With means to add treating material – Plural distinct separators
Patent
1981-03-02
1983-03-15
Spitzer, Robert H.
Liquid purification or separation
With means to add treating material
Plural distinct separators
4321, 210218, 210220, 210251, 210255, 210258, C02F 302
Patent
active
043767028
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to waste disposal apparatus of the type for use in conjunction with flushing lavatories where the waste is removed under vacuum. Such systems are widely used, particularly for domestic lavatories where there is no main supply of water. By removing the waste under vacuum, and using only sufficient water to rinse the lavatory bowl, vacuum-flushed lavatory systems use about 10% of the amount of water generally required in water-flushed lavatory systems.
Often, the waste from a vacuum-flushed lavatory passes into, and is stored in, a sealed tank to which a vacuum pump is attached. It will be appreciated that the tank must normally be sealed in order that a vacuum can be achieved above the level of waste. Accordingly, it has hitherto been necessary to empty the tanks periodically, say at intervals of six months, for example into a transport tanker.
During its residence time in a sealed collection tank, the waste will almost inevitably digest anerobically and turn septic. Particularly, on emptying there may be considerable odour. Further, it will be appreciated that the waste collection tank must be made sufficiently large to ensure that it can contain all the waste from the lavatory or lavatories of one or more homes between the times at which it is emptied.
While it is known to digest sludge aerobically, this has usually been done on secondary activated sludge, primary sludge, the material emptied from septic tanks and cesspits, or animal wastes. Such sludges have a high level of suspended solids, e.g. from 6000 to 20,000 mg/1.
It has been proposed to use an ejector pump as a means of causing the reduction in pressure necessary to flush a vacuum-flush lavatory. In the pump, the waste is entrained in a fast flow of fluid which inevitably includes oxygen. Therefore, a degree of aeration may occur in a collection tank into which the waste is passed, but this aeration is mainly limited, in practice, to the short and infrequent intervals when an associated lavatory is flushed and air is admitted to the vacuum sewer. Such a system suffers from the disadvantage that a considerable fluid pressure head is necessary for operation of the ejector pump. A further disadvantage is that the pressure at the outlet of the pump and in the collection tank is ambient, although it is usually convenient, and often necessary, to collect and store the waste under reduced pressure. Finally, the fact that the waste collection tank is at atmospheric pressure can cause odour problems. It is undesirable to use water as the fluid in such a system using an ejector pump since water is in short supply in exactly those places where vacuum-flushed systems are used and the water added to the waste in the pump means either large collection tanks or costly recycling apparatus. Such apparatus is needed when, as has been the case, the collected waste is recycled for use as the fluid forced through the pump.
Ejector pump systems are proposed in British Pat. Nos. 1,429,370 and 1,502,552 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,620,371, but in each case waste material is passed through the pump.
It would be desirable to provide waste disposal apparatus of the general type described which allowed controlled digestion of the waste from lavatories and other sources and which could eliminate the need for collection and separate disposal of the waste, or at least reduce the frequency of collections. It has been found that such an object can be achieved by simple modification of the most basic apparatus used for the collection of waste from a vacuum sewer system, in which the collection tank is maintained under vacuum. The reduced pressure which is maintained in the apparatus to operate the system is used to cause treatment of the collected waste. It has been found that, surprisingly, even under the reduced pressure, there need be no, or at most only minor, reduction in oxygen transfer.
According to the present invention, in such waste disposal apparatus comprising a tank having a waste inlet and a waste outlet, and means for reducing pressure in the tank s
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Rosen Lawrence
Spitzer Robert H.
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