DK201570471A1 - System and method for cleaning contaminated liquid - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system or method adapted to purify contaminated liquid, which system performs at least one evaporation process on the contaminated liquid, which evaporation is carried out under vacuum. It is an object of the invention to perform substantially complete purification of contaminated liquid. A further object of the present invention is to avoid foaming during the evaporation process. The object can be met if the system comprises at least one common process enclosure, which process enclosure comprises a plurality of technical functions such as a heater, an evaporator and a capacitor. This enables a compact system in which most of the technical measures are placed in the same enclosure. This enclosure can then be partially emptied with a pump to achieve a common negative pressure in the enclosure. This allows the heater, evaporator and condensate to operate under vacuum.

Description

1

Field and method of purifying contaminated liquid Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a system or method adapted to purify contaminated liquid, preferably water, which system comprises at least one inlet for contaminated liquid, which system comprises at least one outlet for purified liquid and at least one outlet for waste water, which system performs at least one evaporation process on the contaminated liquid, which evaporation is carried out under vacuum.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION WO 2011/014107 relates to a method for purifying bottom and impact water on a ship, especially at sea, to an oil pollution level less than 15 ppm using excess heat from the ship's engine (s). Here is described a system for carrying out the method as well as a vessel which includes such a system as well as the use of the method and the system.

Objects of the Invention

It is the object of the present invention to perform an almost complete purification of contaminated liquid; a further purpose is to run a process of contaminating liquid with low power consumption. A further object of the present invention is to avoid foaming during the evaporation process.

Description of the Invention

The object can be fulfilled by a system as described in the introduction, which is arranged such that the system comprises at least one common process enclosure, which process enclosure comprises a plurality of technical functions such as a heater, an evaporator and a capacitor.

This allows a relatively compact system in which most of the technical measures are placed in the same enclosure. This enclosure can then be partially emptied with a pump so as to obtain a common negative pressure in the enclosure, during which common negative pressure the technical functions are in operation. This allows the heater, evaporator and condenser to operate under vacuum. Evaporation and condensation can take place in the same enclosure, simply because there are different 2 temperatures present. Evaporation is carried out at a relatively higher temperature than the condensation. By properly designing the joint enclosure, it can be achieved that only evaporated liquid finds its way to the condensing unit. The reduced pressure in the joint enclosure will lower the boiling point of any liquid. Therefore, the cleaning process can be carried out with relatively low power consumption. Because the system as such operates at relatively low temperatures, it is possible in many cases to work with waste heat from processes such as motors, heat pumps or solar panels. It is expected to increase the temperature of the liquid to perhaps 60 or 70 ° C for operation of the described system. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the system may perform a purification of the contaminated liquid. The pre-purification, for example, may be a preheating process and passing the liquid through a water trap, and a first purification process may be carried out in this way. The water trap can be performed in a way where preheating of the liquid takes place and contamination can be found on the surface of the water level or may be below the liquid. A pre-treatment is possible that way. In a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the system may perform a filtration of the contaminated liquid into at least one filter. Filtration may be necessary to contain larger particles from the liquid, because these particles can later cause in the process of clogging, e.g. solenoid valves, inlets, etc. The first filter can be designed as a double filter, where one of the filters can be lifted and cleaned, while the second filter is still in full operation. In this way, it is possible to operate the system more or less independently of the degree of pollution, because it is possible to perform the cleaning of the filters in parallel with the operation of the system. In a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the system may comprise at least one pump for generating a negative pressure in the common process enclosure. The vacuum generated by the pump must be generated only once, because at the time when the vacuum exists in the common process enclosure, it must be adjusted only when there is a change in the volume of the liquid in the common process enclosure. However, as the liquid entering the common process enclosure is more or less equal to the liquid leaving the common process enclosure, the pump generating 3 suppressed has virtually no work to do without compensating for possible leaks. Therefore, this system is very energy efficient. In a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the heater system may be configured as a heat exchanger configured with inlet and outlet for a heating fluid, which heat exchanger also includes an inlet and outlet for contaminated liquid. Hereby further heating of the contaminated liquid can be obtained, and by using a heat exchanger for the heating process it is possible to use an existing energy source, such as by cooling process water from technical installations or perhaps hot water supplied by the use of solar collectors. If the system is to be used on board a ship, there will probably be sufficient supply of hot cooling water from the diesel engines. Therefore, this heating can also be done with an environmentally neutral power transfer. Thus, as described in this patent application, the system can operate at very low power consumption. In a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the evaporator may be formed by at least one first pump which pumps heated contaminated fluid through at least one inlet into the common process enclosure, whereby flash evaporation is performed at the vacuum generated by a second pump. This allows very rapid steam generation. If the temperature of the contaminated liquid introduced to the inlet is higher than the temperature of the common process enclosure relative to the existing pressure, very rapid evaporation will occur. The non-evaporated droplets or particles in the contaminated liquid will be collected in a tray located below the inlet. Here, the contaminated liquid can be removed immediately from the joint process enclosure without the risk of foaming. When the presence of liquid is avoided in the joint enclosure, it has the positive effect that no foam can be generated. If foam is generated in the common enclosure, foam will quickly fill the enclosure and thus contaminate the purified liquid again. Therefore, it is very important that no foam is generated during the process. It is important that the vacuum is kept below the boiling point of the respective pressure and temperature. In a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the common process enclosure may comprise a capacitor comprising an inlet and an outlet for 4 refrigerants such as air, water, or other refrigerant media. Thus, it is achieved that the condensation process also takes place by suppression in the common process enclosure.

The surface temperature of the condenser must have a temperature lower than the steam condensing temperature which is dependent on pressure and temperature for condensation to take place. It is possible to carry out this condensation process in a heat exchanger where liquid or air is preheated by the condensation. Preheated liquid can be used to preheat contaminated liquid in this system. In a further preferred embodiment of the invention as described, a method can be used in which the contaminated liquid can be treated in at least the following number of steps: a. For purification of the contaminated liquid by performing a first filtration and preheating combined with a first water trap to separating the contaminated liquid into a pre-purified and contaminated liquid portion; b. evaporation of the contaminated liquid in the common process enclosure, the contaminated liquid being heated in the first heat exchanger, where in the common process enclosure, evaporation is carried out under vacuum, whereby the contaminated liquid with the pressure of the first pump is increased through an inlet, thereby flash evaporation occurs in the suppression of the process enclosure; c. the generated vapor is passed through a hover particle and drop trap to stop the hover particles and droplets so that they do not contaminate the purified distillate; d. condensing the steam in a third heat exchanger located in the common enclosure; e. with a third pump, increasing the pressure in the condensed liquid and pressing the liquid through a second filter; f. measuring residual pollution; 5 g. If the residual contamination is below a defined level, the purified liquid is sent to the outlet. h. the non-evaporated droplets or particles from the contaminated liquid are immediately removed from the common process enclosure.

In the process described, it is possible to purify a liquid, such as water, so that it is possible to obtain drinking water of relatively heavily contaminated water. This makes it possible to obtain drinking water from seawater, e.g. aboard ships. Combined with other mechanical processes, such as membranes, it is possible by this method to effect the residual purification of e.g. water by the evaporation process. For example, the content of oil can be reduced to very low levels. In fact, the pollution level after this process may be less than 5 ppm.

Use of a system or method as previously described for the purification of impact water or bottom water on board vessels can be very effective. Bottom water in vessels can thereby be passed through the described processes, and it is possible to obtain water purification which is so effective that it is permissible to pump the purified water into the sea. Requirements for pumping purified water into the sea today are such that the level of pollution must be below 15 ppm, in the future this is very likely to be reduced to 5 ppm.

Use of a system or method as previously described for purifying seawater and for removing salt can be very effective. By the described system and / or method, it is possible to desalinate saline. It can be carried on board ships, but also for example. in deserts near the sea where there is sufficient amounts of saline, but where it is very expensive to desalinate the saline so that it can be used for plants and animals. By the method described in this patent application, it will be possible to supply the system with energy generated from solar panels. Electrical energy needed for pumping and also for control system and valves can be generated by electric solar panels. In this way, a cleaning system can operate without external power supply. 6

Use of a system or method as previously described for purifying domestic wastewater can be very effective. In many countries, access to clean drinking water is limited. Therefore, it is necessary to perform almost complete wastewater treatment. This can be achieved with the present invention at temperatures as low as 30 ° C with corresponding vacuum to the boiling point. Wherever a boiling point can be obtained above the corresponding negative pressure, it is possible to operate a system as described in the present patent application. Waste energy from power plants can e.g. supply huge amounts of heat that have the required temperature level. Solar collectors can also supply hot water with the required temperature level. Therefore, as described, a system can work in cities where there is limited access to clean water where the invention makes it possible to purify and recycle wastewater.

For the generation of potable water, it is possible to combine the described invention with a further process wherein a combined UV ozone and carbon filter process can further sterilize the water and remove most of the organic molecules, as well as remove any possible odor and taste that may be found. in the water.

Description of the drawing

FIG. 1 shows a first possible embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 shows a detailed embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description of the Invention

FIG. 1 shows a first possible embodiment of the invention. The system 2 has an inlet for contaminated liquid 4 and an outlet 8 for purified liquid as well as an outlet 12 for highly contaminated liquid. Further, a common process enclosure 14 is provided, wherein is a negative pressure 15. Inside this common process enclosure 14 is disclosed a heating device in the form of a heat exchanger 26 and evaporator system 18 and a capacitor 20. In FIG. 1 also shows a pre-treatment container 22 for pre-cleaning the contaminated liquid. This process, in a preferred embodiment, may comprise preheating by means of a heat exchanger 56 and a kind of waterlock 58 in which liquids are separated by gravity such that some kind of contamination can be formed on the surface of the liquid and other kinds of contaminants are formed under the liquid. In this way, highly contaminated liquid can be removed with various pumping agents from the upper surface or perhaps below the liquid, and the majority of the liquid can then be passed through a pipe guide 28 with pump means 42 into a heat exchanger 26 for further heating of contaminated liquid and discharging the liquid. of the heat exchanger 26 against the evaporator 18, which is designed as an inlet 40. This inlet 40 is located within a hover particle and droplet 50. This hover particle and droplet 50 comprises an outlet 52 which is connected to the pollution outlet 12.

The common process enclosure 14 has a reduced pressure generated by the first pump 38. The capacitor 20 may be designed as a heat exchanger with an inlet 44 and an outlet 46 for a cooling medium. On board a ship, the refrigerant could be seawater. In other cases, this condensation heat, which will heat the coolant, can be used further in the system, perhaps to preheat the contaminated liquid.

In operation, contaminated liquid will enter the system of pre-conduit container tubing 4, which pre-comprises a heat exchanger 56 which may act as a heat exchanger located in a water trap 58. The conduit 28 directs the purified liquid to the heat exchanger 26. Here for example, the contaminated liquid is heated by heating media associated with inlet 32 and return in outlet 34, which could be cooling water from a diesel engine in a ship. The contaminated liquid is further passed through tube 30 with the second pump 42 to the evaporator 18, which comprises at least one inlet 40. Inlet 40 injects the contaminated fluid into a hover particle and droplet 50, but because pressure and temperature are relatively high and there is a negative pressure in the common process enclosure 14, lightning evaporation takes place. Therefore, the liquid which can evaporate will evaporate immediately, while the non-evaporated liquid, formed droplets and hover particles will settle and end in the hover particle and droplet 50. This contamination is removed via the piping 52. This is to avoid foaming. The resulting vapor will instead flow over the edge of the hover particle and droplet trap 50 and come into contact with the capacitor 20, which is cooled with refrigerant through the tube 44 and the refrigerant is fed back through the tube 46. This results in condensation of the generated steam. The condensed liquid is now largely purified because it has been through an evaporation process. This purified liquid is sent to the outlet 8 through piping 54. 8

FIG. 2 shows a detailed embodiment of the invention. A first pump 102 for generating an underpressure in the common process enclosure 101. Further, a heat exchanger 103. A heat exchanger 103. This heat exchanger is located within a hover particle and dropper trap 104 which also contains a condensing unit 105. A boiler fuse 106 is also shown to indicate presence of foam inside the evaporation compartment 148. An outlet solenoid valve 107 conducts purified liquid to a pump 108 which pumps liquid through a carbon filter 109. From the carbon filter 109, the purified liquid is now passed through a ppm measuring device 110, and parallel to it is a control valve. 111. In addition, 112 is indicated a three-way valve 112 which is further connected to a flow meter device 113 from which the liquid is indicated for a lake connection. Furthermore, from valve 112 there is provided a one-way valve 145 to be used if the liquid is still contaminated. The liquid is then sent back to the bottom water tank 135. The particle and the internal volume of the droplet 104 are open at steam 150 downstream of the condenser 105. Through a one-way valve 114 and through a pump 115, evaporated liquid and particles are not fed back through a pipe to sludge tank 136.

The internal volume of the common process enclosure 101 is connected by piping to a pressure switch 116 and further via a one-way valve 117 to the pump 102. Further, a solenoid valve 118 is used which is used in the case where foam formation is indicated by the detector 106, then this valve is opened. 118 and atmospheric air is directed directly into the enclosure. This will immediately reduce foaming.

With the solenoid valve 121 it is possible to supply fresh water to the heat exchanger 103 purification process. 122 is an additional solenoid valve which can open a connection for fresh water to the interior of the pre-cleaner 123. Pre-purifier 123 comprises a heat exchanger 124 which is heated with cooling water from the engine via solenoid valve 143. An oil indicator 125, and solenoid valves 126 and 127 open for connection to the waste oil tank 137. A solenoid valve 122 allows fresh water to be supplied to the pre-purifier 123. exiting the pre-purifier 123 is passed through a filter 128 by a pump 130. Furthermore, there is a connection through a three-way valve 131, which three-way valve 131 is connected to the bottom water tank 135 and with piping to the heat exchanger 103. 9

The inlet of the pre-cleaner 123 is connected through a first coarse filter 133 and further through a solenoid valve 132. 135 is a bottom water tank, where 136 is a sludge tank, and 137 is the waste oil tank. The pre-purifier 123 is connected to a common supply line from bilge wells through a valve 141, from bottom water tank 135 through a valve 140, from sludge tank 136 through a valve 139, or from the waste oil tank 137 through a valve 138.

In operation, bottom water or other types of wastewater will pass through the one-way valve 134, the coarse filter 133, and further through the solenoid valve 132 to the pre-purifier 123 and, which includes the heat exchanger 124. This pre-cleaner 123 also includes a water trap 142. The contaminated liquid leaving the water trap 142, where most of the oil content is pumped back to the waste oil tank 137, while the contaminated liquid is sent with pump 130 through valve 131 to heater 103 for further processing.

With the pressure generated by the pump 130, the liquid is now fed to the inlet 146. Because the vacuum generated by the pump 102 exists in the common process enclosure 101, rapid evaporation occurs. The vapor flows toward the capacitor 105 as it passes through the hover particle and the drop trap 104. With the capacitor 105, the volume of vapor is reduced back to the volume of the liquid.

The condensed liquid is now passed through the solenoid valve 107 and with the pump 108 to a carbon filter 109. From here, the now purified liquid is sent to a measuring device 110 through a three-way valve 112, and if the purification can be approved and the content of contamination is below 15 ppm, or maybe in the future 5 ppm, the purified sewage can be discharged into the sea.

In order to obtain the best possible quality of the contaminated liquid to be treated, the contaminated liquid is sucked with pump 130 from bilge wells, waste oil Tank 137, sludge tank 136, bottom water tank 135, or elsewhere, through a dual coarse filter 133, which sorts larger particles from the contaminated liquid. From here, the contaminated liquid is sucked through a combined oil separator / purifier 123, which is water trap 142 used to ensure that oil does not enter the purification process inside the process enclosure 101.

The pump 130 now presses the contaminated liquid to the three-way valve 131 where it can be selected whether the liquid is to be pumped back to the bottom water tank 135 for further processing, or directly to the preheater 103 in the process enclosure 101, which also heats cooling water from the ship's engine. The preheater 103 is inside a floating particle and the droplet trap 104. The contaminated liquid is sent from here into the evaporation chamber 148 through the inlet 146. Because the vacuum generated by the pump 102 exists in the common process enclosure 101, rapid evaporation occurs. The amount of contaminated liquid discharged through the inlet 146 is controlled by a valve not shown in the drawing.

From here, the evaporated contaminated liquid flows through a floating particle and droplet 104. S weave particles and droplets punched in the floating particle and droplet 104 will settle and be sucked out with the non-evaporated liquid with the pump 115 and returned to slurry tank 136 for further treatment. By, at all times, having the evaporation chamber 148 empty of liquid, foam formation is avoided which may otherwise result in a boiling process under vacuum.

The vapor passing the particle and the droplet 104 will flow down to condenser 105 and be converted to condensate.

With the pump 108, the condensed liquid is sucked out of the process enclosure 101 and is pumped from there through a PPM measuring device 110 to a three-way valve 112. The PPM measuring device 110 controls whether the condensate meets the requirement of 15 ppm purity and can be pumped overboard via the three-way valve 112 must be pumped via the three-way valve 112 back to the bottom water tank 135 for further treatment.

The present invention can be used on a ship to purify bottom water, but it is also possible with the invention to perform desalination of seawater. Because this process is very energy efficient, it is possible to use this method for all kinds of water purification. 11

List of reference numbers 2 system 4 contaminated liquid 8 outlet 12 effluent outlet 14 process enclosure 101 15 vacuum 18 evaporator 20 capacitor 105 22 purification 123 24 filter 133 26 heat exchanger 103 28 inlet 30 outlet 32 inlet 34 outlet 38 first pump 102 40 inlet 146 42 second pump 130 44 inlet 46 outlet 58 first water trap 142 50 second water trap 104

Claims (14)

12 A system (2) adapted to purify contaminated liquid (4), preferably water, which system (2) comprises at least one inlet for contaminated liquid (4), which system comprises at least one outlet (28) for contaminated liquid, and which a system comprising at least one outlet (8) for purified liquid and at least one outlet for sewage (12), which system (2) performs at least one evaporation process on the contaminated liquid (4), which evaporation is carried out under vacuum (15), characterized in that the system (2) comprises at least one common process enclosure (14), said process enclosure (14) comprising a plurality of technical functions such as a heater (26), an inlet (18) and a capacitor (20). System according to claim 1, characterized in that the system is carried out a purification (22) of the contaminated liquid (4). System according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the system performs a filtration of the treated liquid (4) in at least one filter (24). System according to one of claims 1-3, characterized in that the system comprises at least one first pump (38) for generating a negative pressure in the common process enclosure (14). System according to one of claims 1-4, characterized in that the heater (26) is formed as a heat exchanger (26) comprising an inlet (28) and an outlet (30) for contaminated liquid (4), which heat exchanger further comprising an inlet (32) and an outlet (34) for a heating fluid. System according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the evaporator (18) is formed by at least one other pump (42) which pumps preheated contaminated liquid through at least one inlet (40) into the common process enclosure (14). , whereby lightning evaporation is performed at the vacuum (15) generated by a first pump (38). System according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the common process enclosure (14) comprises the capacitor (20) comprising an inlet (44) and an outlet (46) for refrigerants such as air, water or other cooling media. 13 Process for operating a system according to one of claims 1-7, characterized in that the contaminated liquid is treated in at least the following processes: a. Pretreatment (22) of the contaminated liquid (4) by performing a first filtration and preheating combined with a first water trap (58) for separating the contaminated liquid (4) into a contaminated and contaminated water part; b. Evaporation of the contaminated liquid (4) takes place in the common process enclosure (14), the contaminated liquid (4) being heated in heat exchanger (26), where in the common process enclosure (14) evaporation is carried out under vacuum (15), wherein the contaminated liquid is pressurized with the second pump (42), the contaminated liquid being pressed through an inlet (40), whereby lightning evaporation occurs in the process enclosure (14) with the vacuum (15); c. the generated steam is passed through a hover particle and droplet trap (50); d. condensing the steam in a condensing unit (20) located in the common enclosure (14); e. with a third pump (54), the pressure in the condensed liquid is increased to remove the condensate from the process enclosure (14); f. measuring residual pollution; g. if the residual contamination is below a defined level, the purified liquid is sent to the outlet (8). Use of a system or method according to any one of claims 1-8 for cleaning rinsing or bottom water on ships. Use of a system or method according to any one of claims 1-8 for purification of seawater and for the removal of salt. 14 Use of a system or method according to any one of claims 1-8 for the purification of domestic waste water. Use of a system or method according to any one of claims 1-8 for the purification of wastewater from shipyards and workshop industry. Use of a system or method according to any one of claims 1-8 for the purification of contaminated or salt water in areas where it is difficult to clean fresh water for humans and livestock. Use of a system or method according to any one of claims 1-8 for the treatment of sewage, for example in densely built-up areas, where drinking water can be a scarcity factor.