Liquid purification or separation – Flow – fluid pressure or material level – responsive – Diverse sensing means
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-09
2002-04-30
Cintins, Ivars (Department: 1724)
Liquid purification or separation
Flow, fluid pressure or material level, responsive
Diverse sensing means
C210S105000, C210S143000, C210S202000, C210S205000, C210S257100, C210S258000, C210S259000, C210S266000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06379539
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a system and method for treating water acquired from a freshwater source to generate potable water.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Drinking water is one of the fundamental requirements of any civilization, much effort has gone into the development of devices and methods for generating and refining drinking water. As civilization has progressed, the quality and availability of safe drinking water has improved dramatically. While it is often no longer necessary for individuals to arrange for their own procurement and treatment of water to make it safe for drinking, insofar as those functions are available through a municipality or other government entity or a private entity, there does remain a need to provide systems and methods for the treatment of water to remove impurities. This need is especially pronounced in underdeveloped regions and countries and in times of drought. For those regions or countries wherein the government cannot afford or chooses not to provide, regulate and maintain a system to treat water to provide drinking water, it is desirable to provide a system and method whereby water from freshwater sources, such as lakes, streams, ponds, rivers, etc., can be accessed and treated to provide safe drinking water.
Even for areas in which a governmental or private entity is treating water to remove impurities and to make the water safe for human consumption, it is desirable to provide a system and method to remove impurities, which often include chemicals added by the government or private entity treating the water. Specifically, while tap water has been treated by the government or private entity to make it safe, typically through the addition and blending of chemicals into the water, often those chemicals, while not being unsafe or posing any health risk, give the water a bad taste or odor and may cause residual impurities to form. The dramatic increase in sales of bottled water, and in fact the growth of a whole industry providing pure water without impurities and with improved taste, demonstrates the undesirability of treated tap water as drinking water. Thus, to further refine the water available from a government or private entity engaged in the treatment and purification of water, it is desirable to provide a point of entry system and method to remove impurities that remain after treatment by a governmental or private entity.
As the population of the United States continues its migration away from urban centers toward more rural settings, it becomes more costly for the government to extend its services, including the provision of water. Real estate development continues to occur in areas in which water is not available from a government or private entity, and in those cases homeowners must have provisions for accumulating water, such as in a cistern or from a well, and treating the water to remove impurities. It is thus desirable to provide a point of entry water treatment system and method to treat and remove impurities from water retained in a cistern, well, or other storage device.
Many of the prior solutions directed to the generation of potable water have been concerned with the treatment of saltwater to remove salt therefrom to make it into drinking water. The chemical treatment is dramatically more complex than that required for the treatment of freshwater. The present invention is directed solely to the treatment of freshwater and does not concern itself with saltwater.
Recreational activities have also created a need for a system and method for treating freshwater to remove impurities and to provide potable water that is free of any of the negative effects of the treatment, including the odor and taste of chemicals used in the treatment. Applications of such a point of entry water treatment system and method include use while boating on a lake, river or other freshwater body of water. Another application is use by campers or military units in the field in which a point of entry water treatment system is desirable that turns a freshwater source in a remote environment into potable water free of the negative odors and tastes of the chemicals and devices used in the treatment of the water.
Because of the multiple applications available for a point of entry water treatment system that treats freshwater to provide potable water, it is desirable that such a system be provided that is adaptable to a variety of circumstances. It would be advantageous, for example, to provide a single system and method for treating freshwater to generate potable water that can be applied to a house to provide drinking water for the residents thereof, while also being capable of being applied to a boat or field campsite in close proximity to a freshwater source.
Previous attempts to provide a system for treating water to provide potable water have typically included the use of reverse osmosis involving passing water through a semi-permeable membrane, particularly in those systems that include application of a disinfectant, such as chlorine, in the treatment of the water. The use of reverse osmosis is disadvantageous, however, because the rate at which water is processed thereby, i.e. passes through the membrane, is very slow and is directly proportional to the cross-sectional area of the membrane through which the water is being treated. To generate the throughput necessary to provide a supply of drinking water to a family, a membrane having a very large cross-sectional area is required. It is thus desirable to provide a point of entry water treatment system and method that continuously treats fresh water, including provisions for mixing a disinfectant with the water and allowing sufficient residence time for the disinfectant to work, without limiting the throughput of the system.
Because the use of chemicals, particularly disinfectants such as chlorine, may be damaging if injested in too great a concentration, it is also desirable to provide means for controlling the disinfectant added to untreated water to ensure that system output cannot erroneously output water with too great a concentration of disinfectant.
There is thus identified a need for a point of entry water treatment system and method that provides adequate potable water throughput at acceptable pressure and which is sufficiently flexible and adaptable for use in homes having city water; in homes that do not have city water; on freshwater boats; and at camp sites, military or other field installations.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a point of entry water treatment system that outputs an acceptable volume of water that has been treated to remove impurities while being relatively portable and adaptable to a variety of uses.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a point of entry water treatment system that is modular and performs three steps of treatment to water including pre-filtering to reduce turbidity, chemically disinfecting using diluted sodium Hypo-chlorite, and post-filtering to remove free chlorine, chlorine by-products resulting from the disinfecting, and other impurities not affected by the disinfecting process such as pesticides and volatile organic chemicals.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a point of entry water treatment system having interlocking controls to prevent raw disinfectant or untreated water from exiting the system.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a point of entry water treatment system adaptable to provide potable water on a boat; in a home to treat cistern water, well water or city water; or at a camp-site or military installation to treat freshwater in the field.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system to generate potable water from a freshwater source utilizing two filters and chemical disinfection.
It is yet another object to provide a method for the treatment of fresh water to produce potable water free of impurities and free of disinfectants used in the treatment thereof.
These and other ob
Cintins Ivars
Macke R. Christian
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