Abstract:
An active photocatalytic reactor configured to process biological culturing water with an accelerated process. Water to be used in a biological culturing system is stabilized with pollutants in the water reduced. The active photocatalytic reactor is less affected by outside environment while having faster activating speed. The active photocatalytic reactor can further be combined with a traditional filter to form a serial or parallel connection for more effectively purifying the culturing water with damage to the whole system avoided.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 13/343,754 filed Jan. 5, 2012. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    Embodiments relate to processing culturing water; more particularly, relate to processing culturing water by using a photocatalytic reactor for obtaining stable water to be used in a biological culturing system. 
       DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ARTS 
       [0003]    Atmospheric discharge of CO 2  and possible deleterious greenhouse effects on Earth climate are under serious study. Some studies are revealed concerning solutions by using semiconductor photocatalysts like TiO 2 , SiC, GaP, etc. to reduce CO 2  with products like HCHO, CH 3 OH, etc. by processing photocatalytic reduction reactions. In reactions coordinated with slurry bed reactors, photocatalyst particles are uniformly mixed with reactant solutions to effectively process photocatalytic reduction reactions. Systems used for such a reaction have high performance, but the photocatalyst has to be recycled and the procedure becomes complex with increased reaction time and cost. In addition, the photocatalyst needs to have enough illuminated area for mass-productive optical catalysis reaction. Because TiO 2  has a high shielding ratio to light, ultra-violet (UV) light only has a transmission thickness of 1-2 centimeters (cm) in a TiO 2 -suspending gel solution, where TiO 2  located farther than 1-2 cm in water is not effectively reacted and processing efficiency of incident light is thus greatly diminished if not absorbed and used by the TiO 2  particles. 
         [0004]    In 1977, Marinangeli and Ollis revealed a fiber optic photocatalytic reactor. Therein, TiO 2  photocatalyst is adhered on a surface of a glass optical fiber. Reactants are contacted with a surface of the TiO 2  film and light is transferred in the optical fiber. Thus, the TiO 2  photocatalyst absorbs the propagating incident light and processes a photocatalytic reaction to the material adjacent. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,875,384, 5,919,422, and 6,238,630, a TiO 2 -coated fiber optic cable reactor uses a LED or a lamp as a light source to obtain a high processing performance with a small-sized reactor. However, the TiO 2 -coated fiber optic cable reactor is fixed in a reaction chamber and a low mass transfer rate of reactant to the surface of TiO 2  photocatalyst results in low processing efficiency. 
         [0005]    In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,480,524, 5,308,458, and 5,689,798 and scientific research results presented by H. C. Yatmaz et al. (Chemosphere 42 (2001) 397±403), a rotating-bed reactor uses centrifugal force to increase mass transfer rate and reaction performance of a reactant. With a light source located outside of a reactive area, a photocatalytic reduction reaction has a bad performance under a situation of low penetrating rate of light. A photocatalytic reactor with movable conformal light guide plate (U.S. Pat. No. 7,927,553) can be used to accelerate photocatalytic reactions. In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/913,212, a compound material capable of expanding light absorption range of original constitutional material successfully implants TiO 2  on a plastic substrate. This can be used to fabricate a photocatalytic optical disk for reducing organic pollutants in water solution. 
         [0006]    For intensive farming of land or sea animals, culturing water is very important. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,407,793 and 7,407,793, nitrifying bacteria are used to reduce ammonium or nitrogen organic contaminations in water. As revealed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,351,527, viruses in water need to be diminished and isolated to ensure health of  Cyprinus carpio  on culturing. Prior arts of floating island planters and water cycling and filtering systems are used to filter out ammonium or nitrogen contaminations in water. As revealed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,241,373, 7,052,600, and 7,018,543, electrochemical methods are used to reduce organic pollutant in water. 
         [0007]    When culturing artiodactyls and birds, volatiles of fermented liquid, gas and/or solid excrements may cause serious pollution. Through proper washing process, some materials in the excrements can be dissolved in water and a large part of harmful components is largely diminished through photocatalytic reaction. 
         [0008]    On diminishing organic pollution, photocatalysts can play an important role. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,531,100, 5,736,055, 6,238,631, 6,932,947, and 7,230,255, various kinds of photocatalysts are disclosed for purifying water. However, fixed-bed reactors still have low efficiency even using methods revealed e.g. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,956,754 and No. 6,547,963 for increasing reaction effects by increasing staying time of liquids in photocatalytic reacting areas and by increasing time for stirring liquids. In an intensive farming system (especially for aquaculture), a great amount of pollution may be produced by too much animal feed, ever-changing temperature, and/or a sudden increase in bacteria. In addition, pollutant density in discharged sewage for culturing land animals can be extremely high so as to cause environment pollution and offensive smells. 
         [0009]    Hence, the prior arts do not fulfill all users&#39; requests on actual use. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0010]    Embodiments are an extended application of green technologies such as chemical engineering, environmental engineering, aquaculture engineering, etc. By using an active photocatalytic reactor, culturing water is treated quickly with high efficiency to achieve more stability in a biological culturing system. The active photocatalytic reactor comprises a UV lamp source, a photocatalyst, a photocatalyst carrier and a photocatalyst carrier motion activator. The active photocatalytic reactor can be a spin-disk reactor (U.S. Pat. No. 7,927,553); a Taylor-vortex reactor with co-spindle tubes (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,790,934 and 7,507,370); a vibrating reactor (Japan patent No. WO 03/037504 A1); or a rotating-fin reactor (U.S. Pat. No. 7,704,465). 
         [0011]    The photocatalyst is preferably fixed on the photocatalyst carrier and, thus, the photocatalyst carrier can drive the photocatalyst in various motions as motivated by an external motivator and/or self-movement. However, typical slurry-bed and fixed-bed reactors use different mechanisms. In a typical slurry-bed reactor, photocatalyst particles are homogeneously suspended in water with dissolved pollutants. The photocatalyst particles and water may drive in the same motion. In a fixed-bed reactor, the photocatalyst is only fixed on the stilled carrier and processes pollutants in water around the photocatalyst itself. 
         [0012]    The active photocatalytic reactor can be combined with an extra filter to greatly reduce influence from outer environment, to more effectively purify culturing water, and to further avoid damage of the whole system. 
         [0013]    One purpose of embodiments is to use an active photocatalytic reactor to process culturing water, where the active photocatalytic reactor saves energy and has high performance on fast processing the culturing water to be used in a biological culturing system. 
         [0014]    Another purpose of embodiments is to use various motions of photocatalyst carrier and photocatalyst to increase mass transfer rates of pollutants in water, where an operational efficiency of the photocatalyst is greatly speeded up on processing the culturing water as compared to a typical slurry-bed or fixed-bed reactor. 
         [0015]    A further purpose of embodiments is to use an active photocatalytic reactor to reduce pollutants in solid and/or gas phases with a water-washing pretreatment, where a processing functional of the active photocatalytic reactor is expended. 
         [0016]    An additional purpose of embodiments is to carry on the active photocatalytic reactor with various light sources under minor modifications, where solar light can be an activating light source for photocatalytic pollutant elimination reaction in areas of sufficient sun-light. A light emitting diode (LED) can also be a light source to induce or assist the photocatalytic process. 
         [0017]    Embodiments also flexibly assemble the active photocatalytic reactor with other utilities for fitting local environment and reaching an optimized operational convenience. 
         [0018]    The active photocatalytic reactor used for maintaining culturing water is embedded in an intensive farming system to stabilize water quality and reduce waste water. The active photocatalytic reactor can be used to replace a purification utility or to coordinate with a traditional purification utility. 
         [0019]    To achieve the above purposes, embodiments include a method of processing culturing water using an active photocatalytic reactor and a biological culturing system wherein culturing water is input into the active photocatalytic reactor to purify waste material in the culturing water and directed onto a surface of a photocatalyst disk of the active photocatalytic reactor to a depth not exceeding 5 mm, wherein the surface of the moving photocatalyst disk comprises fixed photocatalyst and wherein the disk is smaller than 50 cm in diameter and rotates at more than 100 rpm; and irradiating the surface of the moving photocatalyst disk and the culturing water with a ultra-violet (UV) lamp so as to purify the culturing water; wherein the waste material is a compound or a combination of compounds selected from a group consisting of NH 4 , NH 3 , NH 2  and NH; and wherein, after purifying the culturing water, the culturing water is recycled to be outputted from the active photocatalytic reactor. Embodiments also include a method of processing culturing water using a backup active photocatalytic reactor with a reactor inlet and outlet and a biological culturing system with a culturing system inlet and outlet wherein the culturing system inlet is connected with the reactor outlet via a first circuit and wherein the culturing system outlet is connected with the reactor inlet through a second circuit and wherein culturing water is input into the active photocatalytic reactor to purify waste material in the culturing water and directed onto a surface of a photocatalyst disk of the active photocatalytic reactor to a depth not exceeding 5 mm, wherein the surface of the moving photocatalyst disk comprises fixed photocatalyst and wherein the disk is smaller than 50 cm in diameter and rotates at more than 100 rpm; and irradiating the surface of the moving photocatalyst disk and the culturing water with a ultra-violet (UV) lamp so as to purify the culturing water; wherein the waste material is a compound or a combination of compounds selected from a group consisting of NH 4 , NH 3 , NH 2  and NH; and wherein, after purifying the culturing water, the culturing water is recycled to be outputted from the active photocatalytic reactor. Accordingly, an inventive method of processing biological culturing water by using an active photocatalytic reactor is obtained. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0020]    Better understanding will be obtained from the following detailed descriptions of the preferred embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which 
           [0021]      FIG. 1A  is a perspective view showing one embodiment; 
           [0022]      FIG. 1B  is a perspective showing a state-of-use of an active photocatalytic reactor; 
           [0023]      FIG. 2  is a table showing reaction products of ammonia and ammonium chloride; 
           [0024]      FIG. 3  is a perspective view showing another embodiment; and 
           [0025]      FIG. 4  is a perspective view showing a further embodiment. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS 
       [0026]    The following descriptions are provided to understand features and structures of embodiments of the recited invention. 
         [0027]    Please refer to  FIG. 1A ,  FIG. 1B  and  FIG. 2 , which are a view showing a first preferred embodiment; a view showing a state-of-use of an active photocatalytic reactor; and a table showing reaction products of ammonia and ammonium chloride. As shown in the figures, embodiments include a method of processing biological culturing water using an active photocatalytic reactor. 
         [0028]    One embodiment uses an apparatus comprising a biological culturing system  1  and a culturing-water waste reduction system  2  connected with the biological culturing system  1 , where the culturing-water waste reduction system  2  contains an active photocatalytic reactor  4 ; the biological culturing system  1  has a culture system inlet  11  and a culture system outlet  12 ; the active photocatalytic reactor  4  has a photocatalytic reactor inlet  41  and a photocatalytic reactor outlet  42 ; the culture system inlet  11  is connected with the photocatalytic reactor outlet  42  through a first cycling route  131 ; the culture system outlet  12  is connected with the photocatalytic reactor inlet  41  through a second cycling route  132 ; and the photocatalytic reactor outlet  42  is connected with a draining tube  61  having a control valve  62 . 
         [0029]    The active photocatalytic reactor  4  has different inner structures for different forms comprising a photocatalyst disk  44 , a photocatalyst carrier motion activator  45 , and one or more lamps  46 . With a spinning-disk reactor, culturing water  43  (shown in dashed lines in  FIG. 1B ) enters into the active photocatalytic reactor  4  through the photocatalytic reactor inlet  41  to be directed to an upper surface of the photocatalyst disk  44 . The photocatalyst disk  44  is driven by the photocatalyst carrier motion activator  45  to rotate for uniformly distributing the culturing water  43  on the upper surface of the photocatalyst disk  44 . 
         [0030]    Preferably, culturing water  43  is input into the active photocatalytic reactor  4  to purify waste material entrained in the culturing water  43  and directed onto the upper surface of the photocatalyst disk  44  of the active photocatalytic reactor  4  to a depth of culturing water  43  (as shown in dashed lines) on the upper surface of the photocatalyst disk  44  not exceeding 5 mm. The surface of the moving photocatalyst disk  44  comprises fixed photocatalyst and the disk  44  is smaller than 50 cm in diameter and rotates at more than 100 rpm. 
         [0031]    When excessive portions of the culturing water  43  might otherwise accumulate on the surface of the photocatalyst disk  44 , any excess portion of the culturing water  43  leaves the surface of the photocatalyst disk  44  due to centrifugal force and is collected in the active photocatalytic reactor  4  to be directed to the photocatalytic reactor outlet  42  and outputted out of the active photocatalytic reactor  4 . 
         [0032]    By activating activity of photocatalyst(s) on the surface of the photocatalyst disk  44  through irradiation of the lamp(s)  46 , entrained pollution in the culturing water  43  is reduced/reacted. In one embodiment, the lamp  46  comprises a ultra-violet (UV) lamp. In one embodiment, the lamp  46  comprises one or more visible spectrum light source(s), such as halogen and/or LED lamps and having wavelength(s) in the approximately 400-700 nm range. In some embodiments, the lamp  46  comprises a plurality of light sources having differing wavelengths. 
         [0033]    Thus, the culturing water of the biological culturing system  1  is transferred to the photocatalytic reactor inlet  41  of the active photocatalytic reactor  4  from the culture system outlet  12  through the second cycling route  132  for purifying a compound or a combination of compounds in the culturing water, where the compound is NH 4 , NH 3 , NH 2  or NH. The culturing water has a pH value maintained between 6 and 8 for operation. Then, the purified culturing water is transferred to the culture system inlet  11  from the photocatalytic reactor outlet  42  through the first cycling route  131  to be used in the biological culturing system  1 . The above processes are repeated cyclically, where the culturing water is outputted to the active photocatalytic reactor  4  and then are inputted into the biological culturing system  1  from the active photocatalytic reactor  4 . 
         [0034]    The biological culturing system  1  is adapted as a culture system for land- and/or aqua-biological intensive farming. According to types and amounts of waste produced, the system can be a closed one or a semi-closed one. For example, if the produced waste is solid or gaseous, water washing is processed at first to dissolve pollutants into water and then the water with entrained pollutants is directed to the outwardly connected culturing-water waste reduction system  2 . If the waste produced is liquid and contains big solid particles, the waste is filtered when being directed to the culture system outlet  12  (e.g. before entering into the photocatalytic reactor inlet  41 ) to avoid damaging different types of the photocatalyst carrier in the active photocatalytic reactor  4  or removing photocatalyst fixed on the active photocatalytic reactor  4 . 
         [0035]    The culturing-water waste reduction system  2  is used to purify the culturing water and/or waste water for recycling and/or is discharged through the draining tube  61  with the control valve  62  and directed into a waste water processing system for subsequent processing. 
         [0036]    The active photocatalytic reactor  4  can be a spin-disk reactor for speeding-up photocatalytic pollutant-reducing oxidation for ammonia in water, where ammonium ions from a plurality of different sources are both effectively diminished. 
         [0037]    The spin-disk active photocatalytic reactor  4  processes the photocatalytic pollutant-reducing oxidation of ammonia in water. A syringe pump injects a diluted water solution having ammonium ions on a spin disk irradiated by two 4 watt (W) low-pressure mercury tube lamps, where the spin disk has a rotational speed of 300 revolutions per minute (rpm) and the diluted water solution has an injecting speed of 2 milliliter per minute (mL/min). The spin disk is adhered with a TiO 2  photocatalyst on at least an upper surface thereof and the TiO 2  photocatalyst is activated by a 254 nanometers (nm) UV light, e.g. from lamps  46 , to oxidize ammonia in culturing water into nitrites and nitrates. The first kind of ammonium ions comes from a water solution of ammonia gas and the second kind of ammonium ions comes from a water solution of ammonium chloride. 
         [0038]    In  FIG. 2 , 1400±25 milligrams per liter (mg/L) of the first kind of ammonium ions is reduced to 875±25 mg/L and is transformed into 11.4±0.02 mg/L of nitrate and 70±1 mg/L of nitrite and 62.5±5 mg/L of the second kind of ammonium ions is reduced to 58±5 mg/L and is transformed into 0.245±0.02 mg/L of nitrate and 2.5±0.2 mg/L of nitrite. 
         [0039]    For the two different kinds of ammonium ions, oxidation does not happen if the photocatalyst and the UV light do not co-exist; that is, no nitrite and no nitrate are obtained. Thus, the spin-disk active photocatalytic reactor is used to rapidly oxidize ammonium ions in water into nitrate and nitrite. The active photocatalytic reactor further controls a ratio of nitrate to nitrite. Nitrate is usually an intermediate product on fully oxidizing ammonium ions into nitrite. The ratio of nitrate to nitrite can be maintained between 7 and 10. Because nitrate is more toxic to water-borne life, high efficiency of oxidizing nitrate into nitrite provides confirmed reduction of toxicity of a culturing environment and further maintains stability of that environment. 
         [0040]    Embodiments have the following advantages: 
         [0041]    1. A short start-up time, where waiting time for culturing is short and ambient environment does not strongly affect capability of photocatalyst. 
         [0042]    2. A short response time, where sudden changes in quality of culturing water can be handled to avoid damage. 
         [0043]    3. Provision for coordination with a test-and-feedback control system, where operative parameters of the active photocatalytic reactor can be adjusted for processing culturing water under different pollution rates. 
         [0044]    4. Use of an active photocatalytic reactor for reducing pollutant in culturing water, where function of the reactor is not limited by the photocatalyst used in the reactor and the light source used for activating the photocatalyst. Thus, materials which can be reduced or transformed by various photocatalytic reactions are reduced. 
         [0045]    Please further refer to  FIG. 3  and  FIG. 4 , which are views showing a second and a third preferred embodiment respectively. As shown in the figures, the culturing-water waste reduction system  2  contains the active photocatalytic reactor  4 , where, if necessary, a water filter  5  can be added under a parallel connection or a serial connection for forming a more stable and less interfered system. 
         [0046]    In  FIG. 3 , the water filter  5  is combined between the biological culturing system  1  and the active photocatalytic reactor  4 , where the water filter  5  has a water filter inlet  51  and a water filter outlet  52 ; the culture system inlet  11  is connected with the photocatalytic reactor outlet  42  and the water filter outlet  52  through a third cycling route  133 ; the culture system outlet  12  is connected with the photocatalytic reactor inlet  41  and the water filter inlet  51  through a fourth cycling route  134 ; a parallel connection is thus formed with the biological culturing system  1 , the active photocatalytic reactor  4  and the water filter  5 ; and, the photocatalytic reactor outlet  42  and the water filter outlet  52  are separately connected with draining tubes  61  each having a control valve  62 . Thus, the water filter  5  can be used to purify the culturing water. 
         [0047]    In  FIG. 4 , the water filter  5  is combined between the biological culturing system  1  and the active photocatalytic reactor  4 , where the water filter  5  has a water filter inlet  51  and a water filter outlet  52 ; the culture system inlet  11  is connected with the photocatalytic reactor outlet  42  through a fifth cycling route  135 ; the culture system outlet  12  is connected with the water filter inlet  51  through a sixth cycling route  136 ; the photocatalytic reactor inlet  41  is connected with water filter outlet  52  through a seventh cycling route  137 ; a serial connection is thus formed with the biological culturing system  1 , the active photocatalytic reactor  4  and the water filter  5 ; and, the photocatalytic reactor outlet  42  is connected with a draining tube  61  having a control valve  62 . Thus, the water filter  5  can be used to purify the culturing water. 
         [0048]    Nevertheless, embodiments can be added with systems for temperature control, humidity control, auto-feeding in biological culturing system, etc. according to requirements. 
         [0049]    The preferred embodiments herein disclosed are not intended to unnecessarily limit the scope of the recited invention. Therefore, simple modifications or variations belonging to the equivalent of the scope of the claims and the instructions disclosed herein for a patent are all within the scope of the recited invention.