The quality of the public water supply is an ongoing issue and water treatment methods that supplement or replace those used in the public supply is increasing in popularity. Further, in many situations, access to the public water supply may be limited and standalone water treatment systems may be the only way to purify water. For example, well water may be the only available water source.
In these and other situations, water treatment systems must be adaptable to particular sources of water. For example, a water source may have particularly high levels of selected contaminants, such as iron or arsenic, or sediment, and water treatment modules that are easily adaptable or customized to remove the specific contaminants would be desirable. In addition, it would be advantageous to have water treatment modules that may be easily adapted to changes in the water supply over time.
In addition, different users have different standards and requirements for water treatment. For example, residential users may require less water treatment capacity than commercial users. Some users may also require water treated to higher purity standards. For example, water for medical or scientific uses require particularly high standards of water, such as for dialysis, laboratory use, or for the preparation of medications. It would be very desirable to have an easily adaptable water treatment module that can achieve the required capacity, the required water purity standards or achieve both desired capacity and/or purity. It would also be desirable to achieve these goals with an easily maintained and inexpensive system.
The disclosure relates to water treatment modules that are adaptable to particular water purification situations, such as a required capacity or a required standard of purity. According to the disclosure, water treatment modules may be connected to achieve these requirements where the treatment modules incorporate different materials and media.
In some examples, treatment modules of the disclosure are configured to utilize filtration media, such as sediment filters, activated carbon, or media that removes iron and arsenic. The filtration water treatments systems may be fluidly connected to modules or systems that employ other methods of water treatment, such as reverse osmosis systems and modules.
The systems and methods described herein are not limited in their application to the details of construction and the arrangement of components set forth in the description or illustrated in the drawings. The present disclosure is capable of other disclosure and of being practiced or of being carried out in various ways. Also, the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of “including”, “comprising”, “having”, “containing”, “involving” and variations thereof herein, is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter, equivalents thereof, and additional items, as well as alternate examples consisting of the items listed thereafter exclusively.
Other aspects, embodiments, and advantages of these exemplary aspects and embodiments are discussed in detail below. This description is intended to provide an overview or framework for understanding the nature and character of the claimed aspects and examples. The accompanying drawings are included to provide illustration and a further understanding of the various aspects and examples and embodiments and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings, together with the specification, serve to explain the described and claimed aspects and embodiments.
The disclosure relates, to water treatment modules that may be assembled to build a water treatment system to achieve a desired water purity or achieve a desired water output (flow rate gallons per minute or capacity, total gallons) or both a desired output and purity. In preferred examples, the disclosure relates to water treatment modules that may be adapted or customized to particular requirements, such as selected standards of water purity or desired water treatment capacities, or a combination of these requirements. Water treatment modules of the disclosure may be used for residential, commercial, private, or public applications. For example, water treatment modules may be placed near the entry site of the water supply into a building, including residences or commercial buildings. In other examples, treatment modules of the disclosure may be placed within residential, commercial or public buildings to achieve desired properties for the water.
In some examples, water treatment modules may include components that increase water purity to achieve established standards, such as government-specified standards. In preferred examples, treatment modules of the disclosure may be used for medical or scientific applications. In preferred examples, water outputted from the treatment module may be of sufficient quality to be used for dialysis procedures. In preferred examples, water outputted from treatment modules of the disclosure may be sufficient quality to be used in scientific laboratories. In preferred examples, water outputted from treatment modules of the disclosure may be of sufficient quality to be used for the preparation of medicines.
Treatment modules of the disclosure may be used with different feed water sources including, without limitation, the public water supply, well water, sea water, brackish water, or fresh water. Treatment modules of the disclosure may be adapted to changes in water composition over time. For example, entire treatment modules or components of treatment modules may be easily replaced to accommodate changes in water composition.
According to the disclosure, two or more treatment modules may be linked or connected to achieve desired properties of outputted water. Two or more treatment modules may be connected fluidly, mechanically, or electrically or some combination of these linkages. For example, water may flow from one treatment module to a second treatment module. In further examples, a third, a fourth, a fifth or more than five modules may be added where water may flow from module to module, where each module treats water using the same or different media to achieve the required purity or the required output. Treatment modules may be linked to other components, such as one or more storage tanks, pumps, or other water treatment components, such as water sterilization components, Connected modules may be placed in parallel or series, depending on requirements for output or purity.
In preferred examples, a treatment module includes an enclosure, at least one media tank or cartridges containing media or other components for water purification, and a media manifold. In general, the media tanks are vertically orientated such that input water enters and exits the tank through one or openings in the top of each tank.
In preferred examples, treatment modules have at least two media tanks that are connected in parallel such that the at least two tanks are side by side to form a row of tanks in the treatment module. In these examples, each of the in-parallel tanks in a row of tanks has the same type of media.
In preferred examples, at least two rows of at least two in-parallel tanks may be placed in a treatment module. In preferred examples, rows of in parallel tanks are placed immediately adjacent to each other. In preferred examples, treatment modules have one row of tanks, have two rows of tanks, or have three rows of tanks or more than three rows of tanks. Each row of tanks may contain the same or different media from adjacent rows.
Tanks of the treatment modules may include filtration media for removing sediment, may include activated carbon, may include media from removing iron and arsenic, or media for softening water. Treatment modules for filtration may be linked to reverse osmosis systems or modules, systems using ultrafiltration components, components that sterilize water, modules including deionizing resin or combinations of these modules. Individual treatment modules may have a combination of two or more components for water purification.
In preferred examples, water to be treated may be flowed through the treatment module continuously or may be pulsed through the treatment module depending on requirements, Water may also be flowed through the treatment module to permit back washing or regeneration of the cartridge material, such as from a brine media tank. In preferred examples, water treatment modules are capable of controlling the flow of water for purification, for backwashing the media, or for regenerating media.
In some examples, the water treatment module of this example may be standalone, having its own power source, sensors, flow meters, sensors, and controllers. For example, each water treatment module may have sensors that monitor total dissolved solids, where the concentration of total dissolved solids is relayed to a controller that may shut the module down or send an alarm if specifications of the system are exceeded. Similarly, each module may have flow meters to monitor water pressure throughout the module which information may be relayed to the controller, in preferred examples, each module may be monitored and controlled using Wifi networks or similar methods.
The media tanks are orientated vertically such that water enters media tanks 22,24 from the top 32 of each tank and flows downward into the media. Module manifold 26 is mounted on the top of the tanks and includes gate valves controlled by solenoids to regulate the flow of water through the manifold (not shown in this figure). Mount 30 holds the tanks in place.
In this example, both media tanks have the same dimensions. For example, the media tanks in the example are cylindrical having a diameter of approximately 1.0 inches and a height of approximately 44 inches. In other examples, the media tank may take other shapes and dimensions.
In general, two filtration media tanks that are side by side, as shown in
Media manifolds 68 are positioned on top of each row of media tanks, covering the tops of the tanks. In this example, components of the manifold are protected by cap The configuration of the media manifolds 68 permits the arrangement of the media tanks and controls the flow of water through the pairs of tanks.
In some examples, all six tanks (three rows of two tanks in each row) may have the same media. For example, all six tanks may contain catalytic carbon. In this situation, each row of tanks may be arranged in parallel with adjacent rows to achieve the required output volume (for example, gallons) or output flow rate (for example, gallons per minute). In this case, the module manifolds 68 are configured to allow flow of input water through all six tanks simultaneously.
In other examples, each row of tanks may contain different types of media. For example, the first row of tanks 62, closest to the inlet, may contain media to reduce iron and arsenic, the second row of tanks may contain softener media, and the third row of tanks may contain catalytic carbon. In this example, each row of tanks is connected in series with the immediately adjacent row of tanks. In this example, the module manifolds are configured to allow flow of input water sequentially through each pair of tanks, where the water passes sequentially through each type of media, from iron/arsenic media to softener media to catalytic carbon media.
In other examples, two rows of tanks may have the same media and a third row may have a second type of media. For example, the first row may be a sediment filtration media and the remaining second and third rows may be softener media. In this case, the first and second rows may be positioned in series with each other and the second and third rows are positioned in parallel with each other. In this example, water flows first through the first row having sediment filtration media than then simultaneously flows through the second and third rows of media tanks having softener.
In the example where rows of tanks are connected in series, one or more serial port connectors are inserted to fluidly connect manifolds with first line 100. Serial connectors 86 are shown in
In
In preferred examples, one or more filtration treatment modules may be linked to a further module or system employing an additional method for purifying water. In particularly preferred examples, the one or more filtration treatment modules may be linked in series or in parallel with at least one reverse osmosis system or module.
In additional examples, additional water treatment methods may be employed using further modules or system, depending on requirements. For example, water may be passed through previously described filtration treatment module where the tanks contain calcite. In this case, carbon dioxide may be reduced, and the pH of the output water stabilized.
In additional examples, modules that produce sterile and ultrapure water for laboratory use may be utilized.
In this example, input water first flows into a prefilter unit 602 that filters material greater than about 20 microns. Water flows into one of three treatment modules 604, 606,608 connected in parallel. In this example, all three treatment modules contain six tanks (three rows) of activated carbon media where the rows in each module are connected in parallel.
Water, having passed through the activated carbon modules then flow into a prefilter unit (610) that filters material greater than about 5 microns.
This example also shows an injection module 612 where anti-scalents or anti-bacterial agents may be introduced into treated water where the ant-scalent reduces water hardness, iron and aluminum and the anti-bacterial agent reduces bacterial contamination. Water may then flow to two pumping systems (614) to maintain flow of water.
In this example, the filtered water flows to one of five reverse osmosis modules (616, 618, 620, 610, 622, 624), linked in parallel.
The foregoing description is meant to be exemplary only and many modifications and variations of the present disclosure are possible in light of the above teachings. It is, therefore, to be understood that within the scope of the disclosure, systems and methods may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/US2022/019184 | 3/7/2022 | WO |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
63157804 | Mar 2021 | US | |
63157994 | Mar 2021 | US |