Patent Application
20130105375
The present invention relates to a ballast water treatment system using a highly efficient electrolysis device capable of removing or eradicating various aquatic organisms and various microbes remaining in ballast water of a ship. More particularly, the present invention relates to a ballast water treatment system using a highly efficient electrolysis device, in which physical shock is applied to aquatic organisms and microbes through a filter-type water treatment tube, chlorine is generated by an electrolysis device employing dual negative electrodes to eradicate the aquatic organisms and microbes, and remaining chlorine is neutralized, so that ballast water is recovered to natural sea water.
In general, most ships has a ballast water tank serves as a device to maintain the balance of the ships by collecting and storing the predetermined quantity of sea water for the purpose of maintaining the balance of the ship and safely navigating the ship in the state that the freights are not loaded on the ships. However, ballast water collected for the safety navigation of the ship serves as a medium to carry aquatic organisms and move viruses to break out diseases, thereby mainly causing ocean pollution and the destruction of an ecosystem of other regions.
According to the request of the united nations conference on environment and development in 1992, the international maritime organization has suggested two schemes of replacing ballast water with new one in a predetermined sea before a ship enters a port and physically and chemically sterilize or disinfect loaded ballast water in order to prevent non-indigenous organisms from being spread due to the ballast water and prevent the eco-system from being destructed due to the ballast water.
In addition, if sell fishes or microbes live in a cooling water treating apparatus to collect and use fresh water or sea water or a ballast water treating apparatus related to the safety operation of a ship, heat exchange efficiency may be lowered, a constant flow rate may not be supplied, and a great difficulty may be made in managing facilities. Accordingly, in order to solve the problem, various technologies to dispose the organisms have been developed.
When comparing several treatment apparatuses and schemes, such as a filtering scheme, a UV disinfection scheme, a heating scheme, a chemical treatment scheme, and an electrical treatment scheme, used for the above objects, an electrolysis treatment apparatus represents the greatest effect in terms of economics, safety, and treatment efficiency.
The electrolysis treatment apparatus is used to introduce a predetermined amount of sodium chloride (NaCl) into the fresh water when the electrolysis treatment apparatus is used for the fresh water, and used to generate sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) from sodium chloride (NaCl) having the content of about 3% in seawater so that the attachment and the propagation of organisms can be prevented by the strong sterilizing power of the sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) when the electrolysis treatment apparatus is used for the sea water.
Fresh water or sea water treating apparatuses according to the related art are disclosed in Korean Patent Application No. 10-2002-0036086 (filed on Jun. 26, 2002) “Electrolytic sterilizing Arrangements of the Waste Water Disposal Treatment”, Korean Patent Application No. 10-2005-0085605 (filed on Sep. 14, 2005) “SterilizingApparatus for ShipBallast Water Using Electrolysis”, and Korean Unexamined Patent Publication No.10-2006-0113865 (publishedonOct. 14, 2006) “Sterilizing apparatus of ballast water of a ship using double pole type electrolysis system”.
However, as described in Korean Patent Application No. 10-2005-0073408 (filed on Aug. 10, 2005) “An apparatus for monitoring deposits on the electrode of the direct sea water electrolysis system” and Korean Patent Application No. 10-2006-0126694“The Method of electrolysis system for sea-water, freshwater and waste-water using precision switching rectifier”, most of the fresh water or sea water treating apparatuses have problems such as the increase of electrolytic voltage, the damage of an electrode, and the degradation of the electrolysis efficiency as a great amount of magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)2) or calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) serving as a by-product of electrolysis are attached to an electrode or an electrolysis vessel in electrolysis facilities. However, the ballast water excessively produced may cause damages to ocean organisms living in an area in which the ballast water is discharged.
Therefore, there are required a scheme capable of improving the electrolysis efficiency by minimizing the attachment of foreign matters and a technology capable of minimizing the pollution of the surrounding ocean caused by the excessively produced electrolysis treatment water when operating an electrolysis device of fresh water or sea water used as the ballast water and industrial cooling water.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to a ballast water treatment system of a ship using a highly efficient electrolysis device, in which a water treatment tube manufactured in a filter type is primarily installed to apply physical shock to aquatic organisms having the size of 50 μm or more by modifying the flow of the ballast water thereby removing or damaging aquatic organisms, so that the life of the aquatic organisms is weakened. Secondarily, the high efficiency electrolysis device employing dual negative electrodes are installed to generate chlorine, so that the remaining aquatic organisms or remaining microbes can be completely eradicated. In order to completely eradicate ocean organisms, the ballast water treatment system includes a neutralizing device capable of returning the ballast water to water similar to the natural sea water by processing remaining chlorine components excessively produced.
In order to accomplish the object of the present invention, there is provided a ballast disinfection processing device which applies the physical shock to microbes having the size of 50 μm or more by primarily utilizing a filter-type water treatment tube, thereby improving the disinfection treatment efficiency of ocean organisms in an electrolysis vessel serving as a secondary treatment device. In addition, an electrode including a plurality of positive electrode plates and a plurality of negative electrode plates is provided in the electrolysis vessel in a direction that electrolytic water flows, so that current can be supplied to the electrode plates through a rectifier (not shown). The negative electrode plates are provided corresponding to the positive electrode plates, in which one negative plate keeps operating, and remaining negative electrode plates alternately remove attached foreign matters so that treatment efficiency can be maximized. Further, before the ballast water of the ship is discharged to the ocean, the ballast water passes through the neutralizing device so that neutralization efficiency of excessively produced chlorine is enhanced, thereby realizing a small-size device and minimize the use of the neutralizing agent to prevent the surrounding ocean from being polluted.
As described above, in order to treat the ballast water of the ship, the electrolysis vessel and the electrode structure are modified, and a primary treatment step of the ballast water is employed at a front stage of the electrolysis vessel, thereby maximizing the electrolysis efficiency. In addition, the optimal neutralizing device capable of improving the efficiency of the neutralizing agent is provided, thereby preventing the ocean from being polluted and thereby safely disposing the ocean microbes.
An object of the present invention is to acquire an economical profit by lowering electrolytic voltage, increasing electrolysis efficiency, and enabling the safe operation of a ballast disinfection processing device when producing a material, such as sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl), hypochlorite (HOCl), and ozone (O3), representing strong oxidativity in order to treat ballast water of a ship. In addition, ocean microbes can be eradicated by treating ballast water, and chlorine, which is excessively produced, is neutralized, so that the ballast water is discharged as similar natural sea water.
In order to accomplish the above object of the present invention, there is provided a ballast water treatment system of a ship, in which a water treatment tube manufactured in a filter type is primarily installed to apply physical shock to aquatic organisms having the size of 50 μm or more by modifying the flow of the ballast water to remove or damage aquatic organisms, so that the life of the aquatic organisms is weakened. Secondarily, a high efficiency electrolysis device employing dual negative electrodes is installed to generate chlorine, so that the remaining aquatic organisms or remaining microbes can be completely eradicated. In order to completely eradicate ocean organisms, the ballast water treatment system includes a neutralizing device capable of returning the ballast water to the similar natural sea water by processing remaining chlorine components excessively produced. The filter-type water treatment tube is installed at the front stage of the electrolysis device, and a plurality of filter-type diaphragms are provided in the filter-type water treatment tube, so that the efficiency of the electrolysis vessel can be improved.
In addition, according to the present invention, in order to improve the efficiency of the electrolysis vessel, positive electrode plates are aligned in line with each other, and a plurality of negative electrode plates are provided corresponding to the positive electrode plates, in which one end portion of each negative electrode plate is narrowed or widened in a longitudinal direction, thereby minimizing the attachment of the foreign matters to the electrode provided in the electrolysis vessel by changing the flow and the flow rate of electrolysis water.
Hereinafter, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to accompanying drawings. If detailed description of well-known functions or configurations may make the subject matter of the present invention unclear in the following description, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.
A ballast water treatment system according to the present invention includes a filter-type water treatment tube 40, which is installed on an inlet pipe of ballast water to apply the physical shock to aquatic organisms or microbes by changing the flow of the ballast water, thereby killing the aquatic organisms or the microbes or weakening the life of the aquatic organisms or the microbes, an electrolysis vessel 10, which is installed on a pipe provided at the output side of the filter-type water treatment tube 40 and completely eradicates remaining aquatic organisms or remaining microbes by generating chlorine through an electrolysis device for the treatment of ballast water employing dual negative electrodes, and a neutralizing device 50, which neutralizes chlorine remaining in the ballast water, which is discharged from the electrolysis vessel 10 through a ballast tank, by using a neutralizing agent and discharges the ballast water. The filter-type water treatment tube 40 is installed at the front stage of the electrolysis device, and a plurality of filter-type diaphragms 41 are provided in the filter-type water treatment tube 40, so that the efficiency of the electrolysis vessel 10 can be increased.
In other words, as shown in
In addition, when viewed from the plan view, the positive electrode plate 20 and the negative electrode plates 30, which are arranged in a direction that the electrolytic water passing through the inner part of the electrolysis vessel 10 flows, are aligned in line with each other and the sides of both plates are spaced apart from each other by an equal interval 3a while being parallel to each other.
Hereinafter, several comparative examples of the ballast water treatment system according to the present invention capable of treating the ballast water of a ship will be described.
The ballast water treatment system is provided with a ballast water treatment tube (having a diameter of 2.5 cm, and a length of 25 cm) having a 50 μm filter-type diaphragm and an electrolysis device, which has an internal space with a length of 10 cm, a width of 20 cm, and a height of 10 cm and includes four groups of electrodes, each of which includes a pair of a positive electrode plate and a negative electrode plate, for the disinfection process for the ballast water. In order to neutralize the excessively produced chlorine, the ballast water treatment employs a neutralizing device manufactured with a diameter of 20 cm and a length of 50 cm. The used sea water represents the salinity of 2.9%, and the electrolysis reaction and the neutralization reaction are performed while applying DC current under the condition in which the flow rate is 5 ton/time.
When the electrolysis device provided at the front stage thereof with a filter-type water treatment tube and including a plurality of negative electrode plates corresponding to positive electrode plates is operated, the variation of an amount of chlorine remaining in the disinfected sea water according to the lapse of time is less represented. The increase of the voltage caused by the attachment of the foreign matters can be minimized, so that the disinfection effect of the ballast water can be prolonged, and the efficiency of the electrolysis device can be improved. Therefore, since the variation in the amount of remaining chlorine according to the installation of the filter-type water treatment tube is less represented, an amount of remaining chlorine, which is initially produced to maintain the disinfection effect for a predetermined time, can be reduced, so that the use of the neutralizing agent can be optimized. Accordingly, the neutralizing device can be minimized.
A water treatment tube (having a diameter of 2.5 cm and a length of 25 cm) including a 50 μm filter type diaphragm is installed. After the sea water, into which various aquatic organisms (Artemia and Rotofer) having a size of at least 50 μm are introduced, passes through the water treatment tube, living aquatic organisms are checked. About one million aquatic organisms are initially introduced into the seawater, and living aquatic organisms passing through the water treatment tube are checked while varying flow rates of 44 L/min, 63 L/min, and 83 L/min.
As shown in Table 3, as the flow rate is increased, the efficiency to dispose microbes having the size of 50 μm or more by the water treatment tube can be increased. However, when a filter type diaphragm employing at least 100 μm-filter is installed, the microbes are less removed. When a filter type diaphragm employing an excessively-small filter (25 μm or less) is used, the internal pressure may be increased. In addition, as the size of the section of the filter type diaphragm is increased, the device becomes enlarged. In addition, as the size of the section of the filter type diaphragm is reduced, the effect to remove the microbes may be reduced. In other words, the expected usefulness is represented in the ballast water treatment system employing the filter-type diaphragm 41 of the water treatment tube 40 designed with a sectional area occupying 30% to 95% of a pipe diameter of the water treatment tube based on the effectiveness of disposing microbes.
Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2010-0031938 | Apr 2010 | KR | national |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCT/KR2010/009485 | Dec 2010 | US |
| Child | 13624714 | US |
