Patent Application
20230099450
The present invention relates to a device for treating algae in waters of interest, and more particularly, to a device capable of treating algae that is excessively generated in waters of interest by discharging high-voltage micro pulses into the waters of interest.
Green tide or red tide represents a phenomenon in which a color of water is changed into dark green or red due to overgrowth of algae (diatoms, green algae, blue-green algae), which is a component of supplying energy to an aquatic ecosystem.
In a place in which the green tide or the red tide occurs, an odor is generated, or dissolved oxygen (DO) decreases to cause ecosystem destruction that threatens aquatic organisms. Furthermore, harmful algae such as microcystis, anabena, oscillatoria, and apanizomenon gives a harmful effect on an interstitial cell and a nervous system when a person or an animal absorbs the algae.
Although a method of spraying copper sulfide, aluminum oxide, titanium dioxide, or red clay to a river or a method of removing the algae is typically used to solve the green tide or the red tide, the above-described method requires excessive manpower or has a risk of secondary pollution. Also, the method of spraying copper sulfide, aluminum oxide, titanium dioxide, or red clay to a river requires a pH of 7 to 8 to smoothly treat the green tide or the red tide. However, when the green tide or the red tide occurs in a river, the river is changed into alkalinity, and a removing efficiency is significantly degraded.
Thus, a new method for treating the green tide or the red tide occurring in waters of interest such as a river, a reservoir dam, a water treatment facility, or nearby sea is demanded.
The present invention provides a treatment device capable of actively solving green tide or red tide through high-voltage micro pulse discharge by using a minimal amount of chemicals or none at all in waters of interest such as a river, a reservoir, a dam, a water purification plant, and nearby sea.
Also, other objects of the present invention, which are not specified herein, will be further considered within the scope of being easily inferred from the following detailed description and effects thereof.
In order to achieve the objects, an embodiment of the present invention provides an algae treatment device, which treats algae generated excessively in waters of interest, installed on a ship or a barge to discharge a high-voltage micro pulse, thereby treating algae in the waters of interest. The algae treatment device includes: a pulse generation unit for generating a high-voltage micro pulse; at least one front end connected with the pulse generation unit to discharge the generated high-voltage micro pulse into the waters of interest; and a support frame on which a front end wire configured to connect the front end and the pulse generation unit is held and which allows the front end to maintain a predetermined depth in the waters of interest.
In order to achieve the objects, another embodiment of the present invention provides an algae treatment device including: a ship or a barge; a support frame including a buoyant body to move depending on movement of the ship or the barge on water of waters of interest; a connection member configured to connect the ship or the barge with the support frame; a pulse generation unit installed on the ship or the barge; and at least one front end installed on the support frame and connected with the pulse generation unit to discharge a generated high-voltage micro pulse into the waters of interest.
The algae treatment device according to one embodiment of the present invention exhibits following effects in the waters of interest, in which the algae is excessively generated.
First, the algae treatment device may selectively destroys the air-sac of the algae by discharging the high-voltage micro pulse at one position or while moving in the waters of interest by using the ship, the barge, or the buoyant body. That is, the algae treatment device may remove the algae by using the minimal amount of chemicals such as copper sulfide, aluminum oxide, or titanium dioxide, or none at all. Also, the algae treatment device may remove the algae in the wide range of waters of interest while moving with the minimum manpower.
Second, the algae treatment device may include the replaceable positive electrode and negative electrode of the front end to effectively cope with the wear of each of the positive electrode and the negative electrode caused by the tens of thousand micro pulse discharges per one day in the process of removing the algae.
Third, the algae treatment device may include the separate front end lifting unit disposed on the support frame to easily replace the positive electrode or the negative electrode by lifting the front end when the positive electrode or the negative electrode of the front end is replaced.
Here, although effects are not explicitly mentioned herein, effects described in the following specification and expected by the technical features of the present invention and potential effects thereof are treated as described in the specification of the present invention.
The attached drawings are presented for purposes of explanation only, and the technical scope of the present invention is not limited thereto.
Hereinafter, features of the present invention and effects thereof according to various embodiments will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations which are obvious to those skilled in the art will be omitted when it may unnecessarily make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear.
The present invention relates to a treatment device capable of actively solving green tide or red tide through high-voltage micro pulse discharge by using a minimal amount of chemicals or none at all in waters of interest such as a river, a reservoir, a dam, a water purification plant, and nearby sea.
Hereinafter, configurations, operations, and effects of an algae treatment device according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The algae treatment device according to the present invention includes a pulse generation unit 100, a front end 200, and a support frame 300. The algae treatment device is intended to treat algae in waters of interest by discharging high-voltage micro pulses into the waters of interest. Also, the algae treatment device may include a generator for generating power, a compressor, and a temperature control device. The generator generates electric power supplied to the algae treatment device, and the temperature control device prevents the algae treatment device from being overloaded. The compressor supplies compressed air when a switch of the algae treatment device according to the present invention operates by pneumatic pressure. However, when the switch operates in a different method, the compressor may be omitted.
According to the present invention, the algae treatment device is installed on the barge 1 or the ship 2 and discharges high-voltage micro pulses while the barge 1 or the ship 2 moves in the waters of interest or moves to and then is anchored at one position.
The pulse generation unit 100 for generating the high-voltage micro pulses is installed on the barge 1 or the ship 2 and connected to at least one front end 200. At least one end of the front end 200 is submerged into the waters of interest. The pulse generation unit 100 and the front end 200 will be described in detail later.
The front end 200 is fixed to the support frame 300. The support frame 300 installed on the barge 1 or the ship 2 may have a protruding part configured such that one side of the support frame 300 extends and protrudes to the outside of the barge 1 or the ship 2. A cable that connects the pulse generation unit 100 and the front end 200 is held by the protruding part of the support frame 300, and the front end 200 is disposed on a lower end of the protruding part. The cable is fixed to the support frame 300 by using a separate fixing member.
The pulse generation unit 100 is installed on a barge 1 or a ship 2 like the first embodiment or the second embodiment. The support frame 300 on which the buoyant body 301 is installed is connected to a stern of the barge 1 or the ship 2 by a connection member 3. When the barge 1 or the ship 2 moves, the support frame 300 is dragged by the connection member 3. In comparison with a case of using only the barge 1 or the ship 2, a case of using the support frame 300 may discharge high-voltage micro-pulses into a wider area and particularly expand the area in front and rear directions as well as left and right directions.
Unlike as described above, the algae treatment device according to the present invention may be installed and used in a drinking water treatment facility.
Flocculant (aluminum oxide, etc.) is used to remove algae in a water treatment facility. When green tide occurs, an amount of the used flocculant significantly increases. The increase in the amount of used chemicals such as the flocculant is one problem, and another problem is that a flocculation reaction does not occur smoothly at an alkaline PH although a large amount of flocculant is added because a PH of water is changed from neutral to alkaline when the green tide occurs, and a pH at which the coagulation reaction occurs smoothly (hereinafter, referred to as a ‘flocculant pH’) is about 7 to about 8. Thus, an added amount of a used pH adjuster (carbon dioxide, etc.) also increases in addition to the amount of the flocculant to reduce the pH of water. The algae is removed by the flocculant, and then remained algae is removed by chlorine treatment. Here, when the green tide occurs, an amount of added chlorine also increases. Furthermore, management and maintenance costs of a sand layer (filter sand) and activated carbon, which are added to remove the remained algae, increase even in a filter bed.
To solve the above-described problem, the algae treatment device according to the present invention may be installed and used in the drinking water treatment system.
In the drinking water treatment system, precipitation of the algae by discharging the high-voltage micro pulses in the drinking water treatment system is performed in a first treatment space, and the flocculation reaction of the algae by adding the flocculant is performed in a second treatment space. Preferably, the first treatment space may be a settling basin, and the second treatment space may be a precipitation basin However, the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, the first treatment space and the second treatment space may be arbitrary spaces distinguished in terms of a function in the drinking water treatment system.
The drinking water treatment system according to the present invention includes a water intake facility 10, a settling basin 20, a precipitation basin 30, a filtering basin 40, and a disinfection facility 50.
The water intake facility 10 that draws raw water from a river or a reservoir for supplying tap water and supplies the drawn water to the water treatment facility includes a water intake tower, a water intake door, and a water intake pipe. The water drawn to the water intake facility is introduced to the settling basin 20.
Soil is mixed with the raw water drawn from a river, a reservoir, and a stream, and the settling basin 20 is a space of removing the soil from the raw water by using a precipitation method. The settling basin 20 includes the algae treatment device according to the present invention in order to cope with the green tide and discharge upper water after the algae contained in the introduced raw water is precipitated by discharging the high-voltage micro pulses.
When the raw water is introduced into the settling basin 20, the algae treatment device precipitates the algae by destroying an air-sac of the algae contained in the raw water and then discharges upper water. The upper water is introduced to the precipitation basin 30 together with the remained algae.
The precipitation basin 30 precipitates the remained algae and floating materials contained in the upper water by adding the flocculant. Although the flocculant may be directly added to the precipitation basin 30, preferably, a precipitation reaction may be induced in the precipitation basin 30 by adding the flocculant before the upper water is introduced into the precipitation basin 30. For example, the flocculant is a material obtained by combining aluminum hydroxide (Al(OH)3) with silicon (Si) and operates based on a principle in which aluminum reacts with the algae and is sunken in water. In addition, any well-known flocculant may be used.
In general, the flocculation reaction caused by the flocculant does not occur smoothly at the flocculation pH of about 7 to 8. However, since alkalinity of the raw water increases when the algae is flourished, the flocculation reaction does not occur smoothly. However, according to the present invention, the flocculation reaction may be accelerated at low alkalinity because the algae is primarily removed at the settling basin. In addition, an amount of added pH adjuster (carbon dioxide, etc.) for lowering the pH of the raw water may be reduced.
The algae introduced to the precipitation basin 30 has a zeta potential that is lowered during exposed to the high-voltage micro pulse discharge at the settling basin 20. The algae floats in water instead of being precipitated because of repulsion between positive/negative ions of algae particles, and this repulsive force is called as zeta potential. The zeta potential is a key indicator of determining whether a flocculation phenomenon proceeds properly. The high-voltage micro pulse discharge according to the present invention lowers the zeta potential of the algae to accelerate the flocculation reaction caused by the flocculant. Thus, the flocculation reaction of the algae remained in the precipitation basin 30 easily occurs although a small amount of flocculant is added.
The raw water passing through the precipitation basin 30 is introduced into the filtering basin 40. The filtering basin 40 is a space in which micro-floating materials that are not sunken pass through a filter layer such as a sand layer or activated carbon to remove the micro-floating materials.
The raw water passing through the filtering basin 40 is introduced into the disinfection facility 50, and chlorine disinfection is performed to disinfect all sorts of bacteria. When chlorine chemicals are added, a pollutant such as trihalomethane (THM) or microcystine is produced from some kinds of algae. However, the algae treatment device according to the present invention may prevent the above-described pollutant from being produced. That is, secondary pollution is prevented.
The algae treatment device according to the present invention in
Also, thousand times to tens of thousand times of high-voltage micro pulse discharge per one day are required in a process of substantially treating the algae in the waters of interest by using the high-voltage micro pulse. Thus, the pulse generation unit 100 is necessary to stably discharge the high-voltage micro pulse.
Referring to
Each pulse apply unit 105 includes a charge switch 118, a charge diode part 114, a charge part 120, a dump resistance part 116, a free wheeling diode 122, and a discharge switch 124. The high-voltage micro pulse generated from the pulse apply unit 105 is discharged through a discharge gap of the front end 200.
The charge part 120 may store a charge voltage by using power inputted from the power part 110 and include at least one capacitor. The charge switch 118 and the charge diode part 114, which are for blocking a surge current, are installed between the power part 110 and the charge part 120. The free wheeling diode part 122 connected in parallel to the charge part 120 operates as a charge switch when the charge part 120 is charged and prevent the charge part 120 from being damaged when the charge part 120 is discharged. The discharge gap of the front end 200, which is connected in parallel to the charge part 120, applies the high-voltage micro pulse into water of waters of interest when the charge part 120 is discharged. The dump resistance part 116 connected in parallel to the charge part 120 forms a discharge path for discharging charges remained in the charge part 120 before and after operation of the charge part 120 for safety. The discharge switch 124 installed between the charge part 120 and the discharge gap of the front end 200 controls discharge.
The charge switch 118 and the discharge switch 124 is alternately turned on and off within one frequency T. For example, when a frequency of the high-voltage micro pulse is 2 seconds, the charge switch 118 charges a voltage to the charge part 120 for about 1.5 seconds in a state in which the charge switch 118 is turned-on, and the discharge switch 124 is turned-off. Thereafter, in a state in which the charge switch 118 is turned-off, and the discharge switch 124 is turned-on, the high-voltage micro pulse discharge is applied through the discharge gap of the front end 200 for 0.5 second.
Although the charge diode part 114 or the free wheeling diode part 122 includes one diode in this embodiment for convenience of description, the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, the charge diode part 114 or the free wheeling diode part 122 may include a plurality of circuit elements to perform the substantially same function. Also, although the charge resistance part 112 or the dump resistance part 116 includes one diode in this embodiment as an example, the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, the charge resistance part 112 or the dump resistance part 116 may include a plurality of circuit elements to perform the substantially same function.
The high-voltage micro pulse generated from the pulse generation unit 100 of the algae treatment device according to the present invention may have a voltage of 5 kV to 30 kV and a pulse width of 6 μs to 300 μs as and stably perform several tens of thousand discharges at the same time.
The front end 200 of the algae treatment device according to the present invention will be described with reference to
The front end 200 includes a positive electrode unit 210 and a negative electrode unit 220.
The positive electrode unit 210 is electrically connected to a positive electrode terminal of the pulse generation unit 100. More specifically, a positive electrode 215 is electrically connected to the positive electrode terminal of the pulse generation unit 100. The positive electrode unit 210 includes a positive electrode tip shaft 211 elongated in one direction, a positive electrode chuck 214 detachable to a front portion of the positive electrode tip shaft, a positive electrode 215 fixed by the positive electrode chuck 214, and a positive electrode insulator 213 electrically insulating by surrounding the positive electrode in a state in which one end of the positive electrode is exposed. Here, the positive electrode 215 is welded and fixed to the positive electrode chuck 214.
The positive electrode unit 210 of the front end 200 according to the present invention may easily replace the positive electrode 215 by using the positive electrode chuck 214. As described above, when the algae is treated by the algae treatment device according to the present invention, several thousand times to several tens of thousand times of the high-voltage micro pulse discharge are generated per one day. Although a stable operation is realized through a circuit configuration of the pulse generation unit 100 of the algae treatment device according to the present invention, the electrode is hardly prevented from being worn due to the large number of discharges. Thus, the present invention adds easiness to maintenance in that the worn positive electrode is easily replaced by using the positive electrode chuck 214.
The negative electrode unit 220 is electrically connected to a negative electrode terminal of the pulse generation unit 100. More specifically, a negative electrode 225 is electrically connected to the negative electrode terminal of the pulse generation unit 100. The negative electrode unit 220 is spaced a predetermined distance from the positive electrode unit 210. That is, the negative electrode unit 220 includes a negative electrode jig 221 spaced apart from the positive electrode unit and a negative electrode 225 fixed to be replaceable at a position corresponding to the positive electrode 215 by the negative electrode jig 221. The negative electrode 225 is spaced a predetermined distance from the positive electrode 215, a current flow path caused by plasma through fluid between the positive electrode 215 and the negative electrode 225 is formed. That is, a portion between the positive electrode 215 and the negative electrode 225 is the above-described discharge gap.
The negative electrode jig 221 has a body on which a plurality of legs connected with a return part 232 that will be described later and the negative electrode 225 are installed. As illustrated in
The negative electrode 225 is at least one branch branched and extending from the negative electrode through the negative electrode jig 221 and is connected to the return part 232 that defines a return path of a current. In order to uniformly discharge energy in a forward direction when the high-voltage micro pulse is discharged, a returned current may flow evenly to each of a plurality of return parts 232. Thus, as an angle between all legs of the negative electrode jig 221 of the front end 200 according to the present invention is 360°/N (where, N is the number of legs), a current flowing through the negative electrode 225 is distributed evenly to the plurality of return parts 232 and collected to the pulse generation unit 100. The return parts 232 are surrounded and insulated by the return part insulator 240.
The positive electrode and the negative electrode, each of which has the above-described configuration, may be electrically connected to a cable (not shown) connected with the pulse generation unit 100 by adopting various types of components. In this embodiment, a connector 233, a connection socket 250, and a second connection terminal 251 will be described as an example of the adopted components. The connector 233 is a hollow conductive body, and the plurality of return parts 232 are connected to the connector 233. Also, a thread is formed on an upper inner circumferential surface of the connector 233. As the connector 233 is surrounded by the insulator 240, the connector 233 is electrically insulated. The connection socket 250 serves to electrically connect the negative electrode unit 230 to the cable (not shown) connected with the pulse generation unit 100 through coupling with the connector 233. In this embodiment, as the connection socket 250 is a cylindrical conductive body and has a thread formed on a lower outer circumferential surface thereof, the connection socket 250 is screw-coupled to the connector 233 and electrically connected thereto. A wire 252 connected with the pulse generation unit 100 is disposed at an inner side of the connection socket 250, and the second connection terminal 251 is disposed at a lower end of the wire 252 and coupled with the first connection terminal 212. That is, in this embodiment, the positive electrode 215 is connected with the pulse generation unit 100 through the positive electrode shaft 211, the first connection terminal 212, the second connection terminal 251, the wire 252, and the cable. Also, the negative electrode unit 230 is connected with the pulse generation unit 100 through the connector 233, the connection socket 250, and the cable. In this embodiment, the cable connected with the pulse power system is a coaxial cable. The coaxial cable that is a well-known member includes a hollow outer conductor and an inner conductor disposed inside the outer conductor. Here, the connection socket 250 is connected to the outer conductor, and the wire 252 is connected to the inner conductor.
Also, as a separate front end lifting unit is disposed on the support frame, a worker may easily replace the positive electrode or the negative electrode by lifting the front end when the positive electrode or the negative electrode of the front end is replaced.
Referring to
Alternatively, as illustrated in
In this experiment, the high-voltage micro pulse having a voltage of 18 kV and a pulse width of 25 μs is applied with a repetition rate of 0.1 pulse per second (pps). A control shows a case in which the number of discharge is 0, a first experiment group (5 shots) shows a case in which the number of discharge is 5, a second experiment group (10 shots) shows a case in which the number of discharge is 10, and a third experiment group (20 shots) shows a case in which the number of discharge is 20. As illustrated in
Also, the preferred embodiments should be considered in descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, and also the technical scope of the invention is not limited to the embodiments. Further, it will be understood that the protective scope of the present invention is not limited by obvious modifications or substitutions in the technical fields of the present invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2020-0032355 | Mar 2020 | KR | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/KR2021/002296 | 2/24/2021 | WO |
