Patent Application
20170007945
This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2015-0097695, filed on Jul. 9, 2015, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The following disclosure relates to a pore water extraction kit for extracting pore water in a seabed sediment. More particularly, the following disclosure relates to a pore water extraction kit of a seabed sediment for more easily extracting pore water separated from a sediment through a centrifugal separator tube.
Recently, an interest in exploration and development of a non-conventional energy resource such as gas hydrate, shale gas, or the like, as well as exploration of a conventional energy resource such as petroleum or gas has been gradually increased, and an exploration area has also been gradually enlarged from a continental shelf to the deep sea.
In order to explore and develop the conventional and non-conventional energy resources, ocean exploration has been performed using an exploration vessel. As the ocean exploration using the exploration vessel, there are a geophysical survey of figuring out a structure and a development process of a seabed sedimentary layer using a seismic survey equipment, or the like, and an ocean geological survey of directly collecting a pillar seabed sediment using a drilling machine.
Various analyses such as a grain size analysis of the sediment, a content analysis of dissolved gas, a geochemistry analysis, a micropalaeontological analysis, and the like, may be performed on a pillar seabed sediment sample obtained through the ocean geological survey, and this may be utilized in fields such as an ocean environment, a stratigraphic analysis, and the like, of an exploration area to figure out a generation mechanism, the origin, blessed possibility, and the like, of the conventional and non-conventional energy resources.
However, in the ocean geological survey performed in the ocean, many ocean samples should be obtained within a relatively short exploration period, and an analysis on the obtained samples should be rapidly performed on the ship in order to decrease pollution of the samples as much as possible and obtain an accurate analysis result.
Particularly, results obtained by directly extracting and analyzing pore water present between particles of the seabed sediment on the ship are utilized as important data in confirming whether or not gas hydrate is blessed or figuring out a section in which a sulfate reducing reaction is generated within the seabed sedimentary layer.
In the related art, in order to extract the pore water from the seabed sediment, a method of putting the pillar seabed sediment in a centrifugal separator tube on the ship to centrifuge the pillar seabed sediment, putting the pore water extracted in the centrifugal separator tube in a primary sample container using a disposable pipette, filtering the pore water put in the primary sample container using a syringe to which a filter is connected, and finally putting the filtered pore water in a secondary sample container has been used.
However, in the process of extracting the pore water described above, the number of used experimental tools is many, such that the process of extracting the pore water is very complicated. Therefore, it is very likely that a pore water sample will be polluted. In addition, a long time is required for extracting the pore water, such that the next work is delayed.
An embodiment of the present invention is directed to providing a pore water extraction kit of a seabed sediment capable of extracting pore water by a needle of an extractor through an elastic membrane formed on a pore water separating region of a centrifugal separator tube.
Another embodiment of the present invention is directed to providing a pore water extraction kit of a seabed sediment capable of supplying pore water to an extractor by applying a pressing means to a cap of a centrifugal separator tube and pressing the pressing means in a state in which a needle of the extractor is injected into the centrifugal separator tube.
Still another embodiment of the present invention is directed to providing a pore water extraction kit of a seabed sediment capable of allowing pore water to be filtered simultaneously with being supplied to an extractor by including a filter disposed at an introduction stage of the extractor.
In one general aspect, a pore water extraction kit of a seabed sediment includes: a centrifugal separator tube including a sample accommodating space formed therein so as to store a sample, an extraction hole formed in an outer surface thereof in order to extract pore water separated from the sample, and an elastic membrane sealing the extraction hole; and an extractor including a pore water accommodating space formed therein so as to accommodate the pore water and a needle formed at one end thereof so as to penetrate through the elastic membrane to allow the sample accommodating space and the pore water accommodating space to be in communication with each other.
A plurality of extraction holes may be disposed to be spaced apart from each other in a length direction of the centrifugal separator tube.
The extraction hole may be formed at a position higher than a boundary between the sediment and the pore water within the centrifugal separator tube.
The centrifugal separator tube may be configured so that an upper side thereof is opened and is openable and closable by a cap, and the cap may be provided with a pressing means so as to apply pressure to the sample accommodating space.
The extractor may include a filter disposed at an introduction side of the pore water accommodating space and filtering the pore water introduced into the pore water accommodating space.
Hereinafter, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In
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Here, it is preferable that the elastic membrane 120 is formed at a position higher than a boundary on which the sediment and the pore water are separated from each other. In addition, a plurality of extraction holes are formed in a vertical length direction, such that the pore water may be extracted from an extraction hole corresponding to the boundary between the sediment and the pore water.
In addition, the cap 150 may be provided with a pressing means applying pressure to the sample accommodating space 101 to assist in the extraction of the pore water accommodated in the sample accommodating space 101.
In
Here, the extractor body 210 includes a filter 240 so that the extracted pore water is accommodated in the pore water accommodating space 250 in a state in which it is filtered. The filter 240 may be a general mesh filter for filtering the pore water, and may be disposed at a pore water introduction side in the pore water accommodating space 250.
Hereinafter, an operation of the pore water extraction kit according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention configured as described above will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In
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Next, as illustrated in
In the pore water extraction kit of a seabed sediment according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention having the configuration as described above, extraction and filtering for the pore water separated from the sediment through the centrifugal separator tube may be performed at a time through the extractor and be collected in a sample container.
The cap of the centrifugal separator tube is provided with a button type pressing apparatus that may apply pressure, such that the pressure is applied to the pore water within the centrifugal separator tube by a simple operation, thereby making it possible to extract the pore water through the extractor.
The elastic membrane through which the pore water may be extracted is formed in the centrifugal separator tube, and the needle is injected into the elastic membrane, thereby making it possible to easily extract the pore water. Therefore, the pore water separated from the sediment in the centrifugal separator tube may be extracted in a relatively rapid time.
In the case in which the pore water in the centrifugal separator tube is extracted by an existing method, it is very likely that the sample will be polluted. However, since the pore water extracted in the centrifugal separator tube may be directly filtered through the filter, the pollution of the pore water sample may be minimized.
The present invention should not be construed to being limited to the above-mentioned exemplary embodiment. The present invention may be applied to various fields and may be variously modified by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention claimed in the claims. Therefore, it is obvious to those skilled in the art that these alterations and modifications fall in the scope of the present invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2015-0097695 | Jul 2015 | KR | national |
