Patent Application
20140262788
1. Field of the Disclosure
The present application is related to water conditioning and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for the conditioning of water to: (1) alter the electronegative state of impurities in water including, but not limited to mineral salts in solution to dissociate these impurities from the water molecules making them less available to plants from irrigation water, (2) reduce the presence of compacted soils under man-made and natural hard pans, and the presence of clay build-up in soils forming clay plans in agricultural soils, (3) reclaim and restore such compacted soils and clay pans, (4) alter a degree of plant infection or infestation by disease microorganisms and pathogenic organisms in irrigation water, (5) alter a degree of mineral scale in agricultural irrigation equipment such as pumps, pipe, valves, and sprinklers, (6) alter a degree of scale in a cooling tower system technologies, and (7) alter a survival, transfer and introduction of invasive species into coastal waters via ship ballast water.
2. Description of the Related Art
Agricultural yield from a field is related to the irrigation water quality and quantity used to water a crop in the field. A field that is irrigated with high quality fresh water containing a low level of chemical impurities will produce a large agricultural crops product per unit area compared to a field that is irrigated with brackish or saline water, or saline ground water. Water that is provided directly from a “freshwater” source (such as a water source having less than 500 pm Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) to the field may still include a number of impurities, such as salt cations, the build up of hard pans and clay pans that affect drainage, carbonaceous material, bacteria, etc., that may affect crop yield. Thus, it is desirable to make these impurities in the water less available to the plants during the irrigation process. Also, in various locations, soils may be unable to grow plants either because the only nearby reservoirs provide saline water or otherwise brackish reservoirs or because the soils are inherently abundant in salts, and salt cations and other impurities that are hazardous to crop production. Thus, it is also desirable to remove impurities from the soil to make the soil usable for agricultural purposes for both plants and animals as well as for industry, mining, cooling water and human consumption.
In one aspect, the present disclosure provides a method of conditioning water that includes: flowing the water including impurities past a probe; energizing the probe to excite the water; and reducing a presence of electrons in the excited water to produce positively charged water downstream of the probe to cause the impurities to dissociate from the water.
In another aspect, the present disclosure provides an apparatus for conditioning water that includes: a flow passage configured to flow the water; a probe disposed in the flow passage; a control unit configured to energizing the probe to excite the water in the flow passage; and a grounding member configured to remove free electrons from the excited water.
In yet another aspect, the present disclosure provides a method of irrigating a soil that includes: flowing water from a water source through a flow passage; energizing a probe at a location along the flow passage to excite the water in the flow passage; dissociating free electrons from the excited water to produce positively charged water downstream of the probe to cause the impurities and microorganisms to dissociate from the water; and depositing the positively charged water from the flow passage into the soil.
In yet another aspect, the present disclosure provides a method of soil reclamation that includes: flowing water past a probe; energizing the probe to excite the water; reducing a concentration of negative electrons from the excited water to produce positively charged water downstream of the probe; and irrigating the soil with the positively charged water to flush impurities in the soil to a depth away from a root of a crop planted in the soil to reclaim the soil for crop production.
In yet another aspect, the present disclosure provides a method of generating power that includes: receiving water at an intake to a power generation plant; energizing a probe in the received water to excite the water at a selected frequency for reducing scale in the water; and circulating the received water through the power generation plant to reduce scale build-up at the power generation plant.
In yet another aspect, the present disclosure provides a method of reducing an impact on an ecosystem, the method including: taking up water onto a vessel at a first port, wherein the water include an organism from the first port; energizing a probe in the water on the ship at a frequency selected to destroy the organism; and emptying the water into a second port, wherein the destroyed organism from the first port does not survive and disrupt the ecosystem of the second port.
Examples of certain features of the apparatus and method disclosed herein are summarized rather broadly in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood. There are, of course, additional features of the apparatus and method disclosed hereinafter that will form the subject of the claims.
The present disclosure is best understood with reference to the accompanying figures in which like numerals refer to like elements and in which:
One or more probes 110 or electrodes may be coupled to the flow passage 102. In an exemplary embodiment, the one or more probes 110 may be disposed within the flow passage 102 so that the water 106 flows around the one or more probes 110 and makes direct contact with the one or more probes 110. In various embodiments, the one or more probes 110 are inserted into a hole formed in the flow passage 110 and secured into position within the water flow via a suitable fitting 108. In one embodiment, the one or more probes 110 may include a conductive rod or a multi-strand wire that extends into the water 106 flowing in the flow passage 102. The dimension of the one or more probes 110 may be selected to be suitable to the dimensions of the flow passage 102. One end of a charge wire 118 may be coupled to the one or more probes 110 at the fitting 108. Another end of the charge wire 118 may be coupled to a control unit 120 in order to complete an electrical circuit between the control unit 120 and the one or more probes 110. The control unit 120 may transmit an electrical waveform along the charge wire 118 to the one or more probes 110 in the flow passage 102 to cause the one or more probes 110 to transmit electromagnetic energy into the water 106. In various embodiments, the one or more probes 110 transmit energy in order to condition the water 106 and the various impurities therein. In various embodiments, “conditioning” refers to restructuring a molecule. Various examples of conditioning may include removing one or more electrons from the molecule, altering an electronegative state of the molecule, etc. In one embodiment, the one or more probes 110 transmit energy in the water 106 in order to excite and/or ionize water molecules and/or impurities in the water 106. In an exemplary embodiment, electromagnetic energy may be transmitted into the water within a frequency range from about 10 Hertz to about 10,000 Hertz. In another embodiment, the electromagnetic energy may be transmitted at a frequency selected for rendering inactive or destroying any bacteria or other living organisms in the water 106. In alternate embodiments, the frequency may be selected to remove scaling and/or impurities such as saline or carbonaceous compounds from the water. Although the one or more probes 110 is shown disposed within the flow passage 102, the one or more probes 110 may be wrapped around an outer surface of the flow passage 102 so as not to come into direct contact with the water flowing therein in alternate embodiments. Power source 130 may supply power to the control panel 120. In an exemplary embodiment, the power source 130 may be a power outlet. Alternately, the power source 130 may include a solar unit, a wind-powered generator, or other suitable generator.
The flow passage 102 may be made of an electrically conductive material, such as steel. In various embodiments, the electrically conductive flow passage 102 may be electrically grounded. In an exemplary embodiment, a grounding wire 112 made of copper or other suitable conductive wire is electrically coupled at one end to a surface of the electrically conductive flow passage 102 and is electrically coupled at another end to a grounding rod 114 made of copper or other suitable conductive member. The grounding rod 114 may be implanted into the earth 116 in order to provide an electrical ground for the electrically conductive flow passage 102. Other methods and devices for grounding the electrically conductive flow passage 102 may be used in alternate embodiments.
In various embodiments, the control unit 120 energizes the one or more probes 110 disposed in the flowing water 106 to ionize the water and/or impurities in the water. In one embodiment, the energy from the one or more probes 110 may create ionized (positively charged) water molecules, ionized (positively charged) impurity molecules (for example, ionized salt) and one or more free electrons. Since the flow passage 102 is electrically grounded, the free electrons are electrically attracted to the walls of the flow passage 102, through the grounding wire 112 and grounding rod 114 into the earth 116. With the free electrons removed, the fluid in the flow passage 102 includes positively-charged water ions and/or positively-charged impurities suspended in the water.
Due to the distribution of electrical charge amongst its constituent atoms, water molecules have a dipole moment. Electrical attraction between water molecules due to this dipole moment pulls individual water molecules closer together, making it more difficult to separate the water molecules and therefore raising the boiling point, surface tension, adhesion, and cohesion. When an ionic polar compound enters the water, it is surrounded by water molecules in a process known as hydration. If the compound has properties that allow it to resist these attractive intermolecular forces, then the compound may be “pushed out” from the water molecules and does not dissolve in the water. Using the methods disclosed herein, the ions and the impurities may be ionized to have the same charge. Therefore, they are mutually electrically repellant and resistant to combining with each other. Thus, at the downhole end 102b of the flow passage 102, the impurities are suspended in the positive-charged water and dissociated from the water. When the conditioned water is deposited on the ground, the impurities are separated from the positively-charged water by sinking deep into the ground and away from the roots of the agricultural crop. The impurities thus become unavailable to the plants. Meanwhile, the positively-charged water clings to soil and roots for use in hydrating the crop.
Prior to depositing the excited water in the field, the excited water may be treated using a treatment system 140 downstream of the one or more probes 110. In various embodiments, the additional treatment system may include a water filtration unit, a cross-flow membrane system, a desalination reverse osmosis treatment unit, a brackish water reverse osmosis treatment unit, and a forward osmosis treatment unit. Other addition water conditioning systems not specifically disclosed herein may also be used with the present invention.
Referring back to
A single PVC pipe may be cut so as to remove a section of the PVC pipe, thereby leaving the upstream conduit 404 and the downstream conduit 406 with a gap there between. The length of the gap is selected to be substantially the same as a length of the electrically conductive conduit 408. The conductive conduit 408 of the water conditioning assembly 402 may then be installed between the upstream conduit 404 and the downstream conduit 406 using respective flanges 410 and 412. Once the conductive conduit 408 is installed, the grounding member 418 may be inserted into the earth 420 and the charge wire 416 may be coupled to the control panel 120. The water condition assembly 402 may then be used to condition water using the methods disclosed herein.
The water conditioning system may induce a charge into the water which causes the sprayed water to be attracted to the soil and the plant. This attraction prevents drift and increases coverage of the sprayed liquid fertilizer onto plant surface including under the plant leaf. Additionally, exciting the water may further causes a release of hydrogen and oxygen into the water, producing a hydrogen and oxygen rich environment in which virus and bacteria cannot live.
Table 1 below shows results of paired—adjacent field trails for irrigating crops using the same irrigation water conditioned using the exemplary methods disclosed herein. Each crop is planted in a field irrigated only with unconditioned water (“control water”) and a second field irrigated only with water conditioned using the methods disclosed herein. The two test fields are adjoining. The first column of Table 1 displays the selected crop grown. The second column discloses the soil and water conditions, wherein the first field receives the water as stated directly in column 2 and the second field receives the water in column 2 after it has been conditioned using the methods disclosed herein. The third column displays results comparing crops from the second field and the first field.
For barley crop, the first field was and the second field were saline soils. The first field was irrigated with well water having 1,500 milligrams per liter (mg/l) of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). The second field was irrigated with the same well water except that the well water was conditioned using the methods disclosed herein prior to being deposited on the second field. The second field produced 70% more barley per acre than the first field.
For organic spinach crops, the first field and the second field were low saline soils. A Whale variety of spinach and a Solomon variety of spinach was planted in each field. The first field was irrigated with well water having 600 mg/l TDS. The second field was irrigated with the same well water except that the well water was conditioned using the methods disclosed herein prior to being deposited on the second field. For the Whale variety of spinach, the second field produced 14.8% more spinach per acre than the first field. For the Solomon variety of spinach, the second field produced 17.5% more spinach per acre than the first field.
For tomato crop, a greenhouse soil was used for the first and second fields. The first field was irrigated with reversed osmosis water having 200 mg/l TDS. The second field was irrigated with the same water except that the water was conditioned using the methods disclosed herein prior to being deposited on the second field. The second field produced 2.8% more pounds of tomatoes than the second field.
Additional results were also found. For example, seeds that are watered using the conditioned water (“conditioned seeds”) germinate earlier than seeds that are watered using unconditioned water (“control seeds). In some examples, conditioned seeds germinate about 5 to about 7 days earlier than control seeds. More conditioned seeds reached the germination stage than did control seeds. In an exemplary experiment, the number of conditioned seeds that reached germination was 5 times (per unit area) the number of control seeds that reached germination. Conditioned seeds experience faster root growth than control seeds. The root growth in the conditioned seeds preceded root growth in control seeds by about 5 to about 7 days. In addition, conditioned seeds watered experience faster plant growth and leafing out than seeds watered using unconditioned water. Thus, more plants survive seed germination using conditioned water and the plants are faster growing plants that produce more leaves than plants watered using unconditioned water.
Conditioned seeds further grew taller plants by about twice the height of control seeds and had bigger leaves, healthier and greener plants than control seeds. The conditioned seeds had faster seed pod germination and earlier seed development in seed pods, by about 10 days over control seeds. More than 1.5 conditioned seeds were produced per seed pod vs. every 1 seed per pod from the control seeds. Additionally, irrigating the plants with conditioned water reduced plant death from osmotic stress over plants irrigated with non-conditioned water. Rain falling on lands irrigated with conditioned water would serve to nourish the plants. On the other hand, rain falling on lands subjected to the control water irrigation dissolved into soil various surface salts deposited therein from the unconditioned water, thereby increasing the number of plant deaths with the control water. Irrigating with conditioned water further reduced plant death by desiccation due to exposure to heat from high air temperatures (e.g., over 100° F.) and in periods of high-dry winds. Lastly, irrigating with conditioned water was seen to increase development of nitrogen fixing bacterial and nitrogen levels in soils.
While the foregoing disclosure is directed to the preferred embodiments of the disclosure, various modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art. It is intended that all variations within the scope and spirit of the appended claims be embraced by the foregoing disclosure.
