Abstract:
The present invention is directed to a system and method which recycles waste so that the effluent coming out of the system actually equals a potable water standard with essentially no contaminated sludge. In one embodiment, the solids in wastewater are subjected to aeration and enzymes in a digester for a period of time. The cleanest portion of the water from the digester is then clarified. Sludge, as well as scum, from the clarifier is vacuumed back to the digester. Clear water from the clarifier is delivered to a Recycling stage for filtering to remove suspended solids down to 5-microns. When the recycling process housing reaches saturation, a back-flushing process with clean water sends all of the captured suspended solids back into the Digester. The effluent, other than during back-flushing, from the Recycler is then passed through:
       1) a water purification process to remove parasites;   2) a treatment to reduce hazardous chemicals; and   3) a UV (or other non-hazardous process) to remove, kill or inactivate all bacteria and viruses, all without producing sludge.       
 
     The output from this final state is potable water. In one embodiment, a single final stage can serve multiple digester/clarifier stages.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0001]    This disclosure relates to water treatment and more particularly to systems and methods for rehabilitating wastewater and even more particularly to systems and methods for accepting wastewater and producing therefrom potable water with essentially no residual sludge. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    It is fundamental that water is essential for the survival of most plants and animals. Potable water is also a resource that is finite is quantity and quality. Because of its widespread use as a human consumable and for supporting food growth it is vital that a steady supply of potable water continue to be available. Potable in this context means water of sufficiently high quality that it can be consumed or used with low risk of immediate or long term harm. While there certainly can be a wide variance in tolerances in different geographical locations, the basic requirements are the same everywhere, only the tolerance levels may change. 
         [0003]    To achieve potable water from water that is outside the potable limits (whatever they may be for a given region) there are three things that must be accomplished. These are: removal of parasites; removal of hazardous chemicals; and removal of bacteria and viruses. Collectively, parasites, hazardous chemicals, bacteria and viruses can be thought of as contaminants. If all these contaminates are removed then the resultant water is pure. However, since humans can tolerate some levels of contaminants (in fact some parasites, bacteria and viruses may actually be helpful) it is not necessary that the levels be reduced to zero to have potable water. But the harmful ones must be reduced below the tolerance level for a given region. 
         [0004]    Parasites removal requires filtration of water born solid to a level in the one micron range. Since the human eye does not see solids smaller than approximately 25 microns, and since the filtration process slows down water movement, a typical municipal system would filter down to the sub-25 micron level but not below 3-microns. Thus, parasites, such as cryptosporidium and giardia, can be found in municipal water. 
         [0005]    Many hazardous chemicals do not respond to filtration. They are instead removed by absorption and adsorption. Absorption is an inside process while adsorption occurs on the outside of the combination of media (minerals) being used. For example, carbon would operate to absorb and adsorb hazardous chemicals. At a certain point when the media (carbon or other material) tank is full, it is discarded and a fresh media tank installed. But it is not filtration. The hazardous chemicals are typically water soluble and need to be grabbed. There are two factors involved in achieving the “grabbing”. One factor is to have a formula of various minerals, that in conjunction with each other work to absorb or adsorb the chemicals. The second factor is retention time, so that the chemicals in the water coming through have enough time to be “grabbed”, instead of being channeled through. One system for “grabbing” chemicals from water is the Global-LS3-Multi-Media-Treatment Process available from Global Water Group located in Dallas, Tex. 
         [0006]    Bacteria and viruses are typically reduced by chlorine. However, chlorine is a hazardous chemical. The World Health Organization has been trying to stop the use of chlorine as a water cleaning agent because chlorine in water that has not been cleaned—and as above-noted most water is not cleaned—creates carcinogens. Some people estimate that a high percentage of cancer deaths stem from chlorine treated water. An alternative for killing bacteria and viruses in water is to expose the water to ultra-violet light. 
         [0007]    One major problem in the treatment of wastewater is the creation of a byproduct called sludge. The sludge, by definition, contains the contaminants removed from the water. Wastewater sludge carries all the contaminants, hazardous metals, chemicals, etc. and today this sludge is dumped in a landfill. The contaminants then leach into the earth and find their way to aquifers, rivers and streams all over the world. Not a good situation. 
         [0008]    In the offshore oil and gas business since there are no fields in which to dump the sludge they have designed systems using the concept of aerobics. These systems use organisms to eat the organic sludge. The residual, while cleaned substantially, is not perfectly free of contaminants. This residual is then chlorinated and then dumped. Since the residual is not perfectly clean, carcinogens are formed which are then spread about. 
         [0009]    An activated sludge system is known. In such a system the water would first be exposed to aeration where particles are broken up and biologically reduced. Then the partially cleaned water goes through a clarifier and the sludge would be pumped back until most of it is reduced. The remaining sludge is then dumped. The process takes about 24 hours but still results in suspended solids and viruses. 
         [0010]    Thus, the existing extended aeration-activated sludge systems take too long to process and do not yield potable water. 
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0011]    The present invention is directed to a system and method which recycles waste so that the effluent coming out of the system actually equals a potable water standard with essentially no contaminated sludge. In one embodiment, the solids in wastewater are subjected to aeration and enzymes in a digester for a period of time. The cleanest portion of the water from the digester is then clarified. Sludge, as well as scum, from the clarifier is vacuumed back to the digester. Clear water from the clarifier is delivered to a Recycling stage for filtering to remove suspended solids down to 5-microns. When the recycling process housing reaches saturation, a back-flushing process with clean water sends all of the captured suspended solids back into the Digester. The effluent, other than during back-flushing, from the Recycler is then passed through:
       1) a water purification process to remove parasites;   2) a treatment to reduce hazardous chemicals; and   3) a UV (or other non-hazardous process) to remove, kill or inactivate all bacteria and viruses, all without producing sludge.       
 
         [0015]    The output from this final state is potable water. In one embodiment, a single final stage can serve multiple digester/clarifier stages. 
         [0016]    The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. The novel features which are believed to be characteristic of the invention, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that each of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration and description only and is not intended as a definition of the limits of the present invention. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0017]    For a more complete understanding of the present invention, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which: 
           [0018]      FIG. 1  shows one embodiment of a water treatment facility in accordance with the teachings of the invention; 
           [0019]      FIG. 2  shows one embodiment of a Recycler Flow Diagram used with the facility of  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0020]      FIGS. 3A through 3J  show examples of display messages for various aspects of the system shown in  FIG. 1 ; and 
           [0021]      FIGS. 4 and 5  show the modular nature of a water treatment system where multiple digester/clarifiers can feed a single final stage recycling process. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0022]      FIG. 1  shows one embodiment  10  of a wastewater treatment facility in accordance with the teachings of the invention. While this embodiment shows a wastewater treatment facility constructed within a 40 foot container it should be understood that the concepts discussed herein can be used as well for permanent in-the-ground facilities, as would be customary with a municipal treatment center. Water, wastewater in our example, enters from the right and as will be seen, potable water exits from the left. 
         [0023]    The wastewater enters digester  11  which in essence is a large tank containing aeration equipment (not shown) and bacteria that feeds on the waste products in the water. The feed water from a sewer line or from other sources of waste water pass into the digester. Usually a lift station would be positioned to enable water flow. The wastewater is typically from toilets, sinks, showers, etc. and if desired a screen can be positioned at the input to catch debris larger than a certain size, say larger than an inch. In the embodiment shown, air vents are positioned in the digester run by low pressure blower systems that generate substantial cubic feet per minute (cfm). These are regulated depending on the amount of water flow into the system so as to produce a constant churning of the water under air pressure. Air flows from the bottom to provide a rolling motion to the water serving to break up suspended solids. There are also air vents along the top. 
         [0024]    If the embodiment shown in  FIG. 1  were to be designed to handle 12,000 gallons a day then because this is a 12-hour system, the digester would be sized to hold approximately 6,000 gallons. As more water enters from the right, water empties from the left into the clarifier. This occurs because water spills through openings in the partition between digester portion  11  and clarifier portion  12 . These openings (two in the example) are baffled so that the air-induced motion in the digester is not imparted to the clarifier. 
         [0025]    If the input water slows down, less water goes through the clarifier because the water will just balance out between clarifier and digester. The openings between the digester and the clarifier are positioned so that the cleanest of the water, typically in the lateral and vertical middle of the digester tank near the clarifier wall finds its way into the clarifier. It is not critical where the water comes from that flows into the clarifier, but the cleaner it is the more efficient the operation will be. The openings are shielded so the water just doesn&#39;t flow quite out. The water meanders through the opening and this reduces the agitation. 
         [0026]    In clarifier  12  there are baffles and other areas that make the water as still as possible. The baffles are cross-hatched and everything comes down in an angle to one, two or even more boxes  102 - 1  to  102 -M each about a foot cubed. The idea of the clarifier is that suspended solids in the water from the digester drop into one of the boxes. A pipe (not shown) at the bottom vacuums the dropped solids and deposits them back into the digester. Any scum (such as  103 - 1  to  103 -N) that comes to the surface of the clarifier is also skimmed off by skimmers (not shown) and returned to the digester. The vacuum and the skimmers are all part of the air flow of the system. 
         [0027]    Water from just below the skimmers which is the cleanest water in the clarifier falls over weir  104 , which is a tooth-looking bar  104 - 1  to  104 -N that holds solids back as the water flows out of the clarifier. Again, as with the water coming into the clarifier, the system is open such that the levels remain even. Thus, the more water that enters the clarifier the more water that will fall over the weir and enter holding tank  13 . 
         [0028]    As will be discussed below, water from the holding tank is filtered by media pod  204  which acts, as will be discussed, as a recycler. In one embodiment, media pod is a tank containing filtering media, such as Micro-Z. The media captures suspended solids down to a level of approximately 5 microns. Note that the system will work well even at 10 microns. The output of media pod  204 , devoid of suspended solids above the set level then flows to water purification process  205 . When the recycler is full (it is full when the pressure builds to a certain level) it is back flushed with pure water saved earlier in the process. The back flush ends up in digester  11  where the bacteria in the digester tank will continue eating the suspended solids. This all works by a valve system under computer control. 
         [0029]    The valves are all set in certain configuration to let flow come from one pipe to another. The water comes into the recycler and when it comes out of the recycler it goes into water purification system  14  which will be discussed below. The back-flush tank is the first thing that is filled before potable water is allowed to exit the system. When the back-flush tank is full the computer automatically stops filling and sets the values to expel the potable water directly from the clarifier. 
         [0030]    Note that system  10  as illustrated in  FIG. 1  is shown without all the piping, valves and control equipment that would be necessary for an operational system. One skilled in the art can easily run the pipes and the place the valves based upon the discussion herein, particularly the discussion below with respect to  FIG. 2 . 
         [0031]    In one embodiment the system has seven valves as will be discussed with respect to  FIG. 2 . 
         [0032]    The size of the clarifier should be adjusted based on the volume of the water coming into a particular digester. For example, if there is one container, then the clarifier must have enough total volume capacity to equal at least 14% of the flow capacity for 12 hours of operation. One way to do this is to design the digesters to be approximately the same volume as the 12 hour volume. So for a 12,000 gallon a day (24 hour) system, the digester will have 6,000 gallon capacity. The clarifier needs to be at least ⅙ th  of the size of the digester. Allowing for surges, more capacity might be allocated to the digester and thus the clarifier might be closer to ⅕ th  the size of the digester. Allocation for operations that require more surge control might have larger proportioned digesters or larger holding tanks prior to the digester or following the clarifier. Surges are also moderated by enlarging the recycling process and/or the water purification process. Excessive flow is protected by the capturing of the suspended solids and the purification of the throughput. Excesses of flow beyond the capacity of the recycler and the water purification process are automatically returned to the digester. 
         [0033]    It is optional as to whether a system will have the recycler and water purification in the same container or not. A portable system, such as is used by the military, or in flooding or disaster situations, most likely would. On the other hand, a municipal system probably would have a container (or in-ground tank) that is digester/clarifier, and then another facility that would house a recycler/water purification system. Usually the blower systems that would be used for creating the air movement and the vacuum would be in the digester/clarifier container, but it might be in the recycler or as a stand-alone unit. 
         [0034]    Without the recycling and purification process the output of the system would be similar to wastewater systems with suspended solids, high e-coli and sludge. Because of the recycling and water purification processes as discussed herein, the time element for the aeration process is basically cut in half, the sludge is virtually eliminated and the output effluent will be “green”, environmentally correct and even potable. 
         [0035]      FIG. 2  shows one embodiment  20  of a control system used for enabling the pump and valves of the facility of  FIG. 1 . First, the wastewater enters wastewater digester  11  for the aeration process. Clearer water is pushed into clarifier  12  to separate sludge from effluent and then the clearest water seeps over the weir into holding tank  133 . The holding tank effluent flows into media pod  204 . The media pod captures suspended solids. The water then flows through the media pod and enters final stage filtering, UV and/or chemical cleaning (chlorination) process  205 . The filtering process is, for example, available from Global Water under the name LS3™. The water then emerges from process  205  via output  205 - 1  as purified water. Another example of a filter that can be used is shown in PCT application “Porous Block Nanofiber Composite Filters”, filed on Nov. 21, 2008 under PCT Application Number: PCT/US2008/084434 (WO 2010/059165 A1) which application is hereby incorporated by reference herein. 
         [0036]    If backflush tank  206  is empty, or low, pressure transducer  206 - 1  senses this condition and the purified water from process  205  is diverted to the backflush tank by reversing valve BV 4  and opening valve BV 5 . Check valve FS 2  prevents the clear water from tank  205  from flowing back to media pod  204 . Note that in backflush tank  206 , in this embodiment, pressure transducer  206 - 2  is located away from the water flow inlet/outlet port  206 - 1  to prevent false readings. 
         [0037]    When the backflush tank is full, as detected by differential pressure transducer  206 - 3 , the computer stops the system. The valves then change their flow direction status so that water flows from holding tank  203  through media pod  204  to final stage process  205 . The system then restarts. The output of process  205  is available to flow out of system  20  via output  205 - 1  for any desired re-use (toilets, showers, maintenance, reservoir refilling, straight disposal or drinking.). This is an environmentally “green” output. 
         [0038]    Pressure transducer PT 3  signals the computer to stop the system when media pod (or pods if more than one are used)  204  fills with suspended solids. Valves BV 2  and BV 3  open, valve 3WBV 1  changes direction and valve BV 4  closes. The computer then restarts the system and this time the pumping process back washes media pod  204  until the backflush tank is emptied back into digester  11 . This then delivers the suspended solids from pod  204  back to digester  11  and the back wash process is complete. 
         [0039]    The computer again automatically stops the system. Again, the valves change their flow direction so that water flows from holding tank  13  through media pod  204  to process  205 . The computer then again restarts the system now with valve BV 5  open and valve BV 4  reversed so as to re-fill backflush tank  206 . When the backflush tank is full the valves revert to their normal position such that all the water that has been processed is now available at the output of process  205 . 
         [0040]    Note that not all the water from process  205  needs be diverted to backflush tank so that a continuous output supply could be made available if desired. Also note that a single backflush tank could server multiple media pods or multiple systems if desired. 
         [0041]      FIGS. 3A through 3J  show examples of display messages for various aspects of the system. 
         [0042]      FIG. 3A  shows “Tank level” for the back flush operation. The numbers indicate tank water level in inches. “Low Set” is the current shut off point used during a back wash run. It will normally be about 8 inches depending on the tank plumbing. 
         [0043]      FIG. 3B  shows “High Set” and is the shut off point when the tank is being filled. It will normally be set at about 30 inches. “Low Set” and “High Set” are system calibration variables and can change for different systems. 
         [0044]      FIG. 3C  shows “FS 1  PPS” and is the pulses per second produced in flow sensor FS 1  (Flow Sensor  1 ) during pumping to LS3™ (LS3 is a trademark of Global Water and the LS3 product is available from Global Water). “FS 1  PPS Set” shows the pump speed. The system adjusts the VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) speed to match the FS 1  PPS with the set point. 
         [0045]      FIG. 3D  shows the pump set point for back washing. 
         [0046]      FIG. 3E  shows the PPS from flow sensor FS 2  during normal pumping to LS3™ and serves primarily as an indication that the system is working. During back wash, if the system detects pulses in the LS3™, it will sound an alarm and shut down. This usually only happens if a valve fails. 
         [0047]      FIG. 3F  shows pressure transducers PT 1  and PT 2 . PT 1  is before the recycler media and PT 2  is after the media and before the LS3™ component. The system remembers the highest reading for each and saves it for display. 
         [0048]      FIG. 3G  shows the change (delta) between PT 1  and PT 2 . Thus, PSI=PT 1 −PT 2 . If PSI is greater than the “BF PSI Set point” during a pumping operation, the system will automatically back wash as soon as the current pumping operation has completed. 
         [0049]      FIG. 3H  shows an analog to digital conversion of the current (amperage) being consumed in moving the various ball valves. The ball valves are, in this embodiment, moved one at a time so that one signal conditioning circuit can test all. This display is for trouble shooting purposes. 
         [0050]      FIG. 3I  shows an analog to digital conversion produced as a result of current (amperage) in the UV lamp(s). This display is for trouble shooting purposes. 
         [0051]      FIG. 3J  shows an analog to digital conversion produced as a result of current (amperage) in the chlorine pump. This display is for trouble shooting purposes. 
         [0052]      FIGS. 4 and 5  show the modular nature of a water treatment system where multiple digesters/clarifiers can feed a single final stage recycling process.  FIG. 4  shows modular system  40  which is an example of a 250,000 gallon a day (or one thousand cubic meters, which is 264,500 GPD). In this example, each container  41 - 1  to  41 - 5  houses a digester (D) and a clarifier (C) with the clarifier sized as discussed above. Each digester would be sized to process approximately ⅕ th  or 50,000 gallons in 24 hours and thus the digester portion would hold about 25,000 gallons of water. 
         [0053]    Wastewater (or any water that needs to be rehabilitated) flows in via inlet  401  and is metered to the respective tanks by a system of valves  403 - 1  to  403 -N and  404 - 1  to  404 -N. The inlet to each digester is via respective pipe  402 - 1  to  402 -N. Note that while the piping and valves are shown interconnected this need not be the case and wastewater can flow into each of the digesters from an independent source of wastewater. Note that the water going to some of the digesters can be sewer type water and water going to other of the digester inlets can be storm drain type water. In fact, if desired, multiple types of wastewater can be input into the same digester if desired. Regardless of where the water at the input to the various digesters originates, the output from all of the digester/clarifiers in the cluster can be processed by a single recycler  42  sized to handle 250,000 gallons/day. Input to recycler  42  is via pipe  405  and the potable water output flows out of outlet  410 . Because the digester/clarifiers are stand-alone units in this embodiment, they can be physically located anywhere desired and need not be in the same geographical location with each other or even with recycler  42 . The only proviso being that there needs to be a feedback of water containing suspended solids over the filter limit (5 micros in this example) from the recycler to the digester. In  FIG. 4  this is shown by arrow  402 . Note, however, that the feedback need be to only one of the digesters even though the recycler is handling water from five different digester/clarifier pairs. Also note that the digester and clarifier need not be in the same housing and in fact several digesters can feed into a common clarifier if desired. 
         [0054]    The cluster is set at 250,000 gallons or a thousand cubic meters because that is an optimum efficiency for water purification. The system must be sized to be able to handle flow rate and still be able to remove parasites, hazardous chemicals, and kill the bacteria and viruses. That is what this cluster is designed for. Thus, to process 2,000 cubic meters a day the system would require two clusters, etc. 
         [0055]      FIG. 5  shows system  50  having two clusters  40 . System  50  can process wastewater at the rate of two thousand cubic meters a day. Four thousand cubic meters of water processing will require, of course, four clusters. Thus, the concepts discussed herein can be scaled up to whatever size is necessary and this scaling can be done as the demand increases. Also, as discussed, it does not have to be all built in the same location. Since there is no sludge output the system is green even when scaled to a million gallons/day or to 25 million gallons/day (100 clusters). The clusters can be arranged with piping such that one can substitute for another for cleaning and maintenance purposes. 
         [0056]    As discussed above, there are sensors to detect pressure, to detect power capacity, air flow, etc. which are all important components in making the system work properly. If desired, this can all be monitored from a common location, whether it is one container or a hundred containers. 
         [0057]    Although the present invention and its advantages have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the scope of the present application is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods and steps described in the specification. As one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from the disclosure of the present invention, processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps, presently existing or later to be developed that perform substantially the same function or achieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized according to the present invention. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within their scope such processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps.