Abstract:
The present invention discloses a portable water treatment facility. The water treatment facility has housing on castors. The housing houses the water treatment member. The housing has various doors which are locked to make the housing tamper resistant. The housing has an external sampling station which allows a technician at any point in time to ensure that all of the liquids being provided by the water treatment member meet specifications. This system has a modular water treatment member consisting of various filters, tanks, and pumps which are attached to one another by short fluid conduits with quick disconnects. The system is computer monitored, capable of remoting data offsite and producing an audit trail capturing system operational parameters and quality of water produced over time.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates generally to a water treatment facility and more particularly to a water treatment facility that is portable and securable. 
     It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that water treatment facilities are needed in various fields. One key field is in hemodialysis. Simply put, hemodialysis aids a patient whose body is incapable of filtering the blood. At hemodialysis centers, the prior art has used stationary and fixtured facilities to filter the water necessary to the purity necessary for hemodialysis machines. These water treatment facilities typically consume 400 square feet or more of clinic space. These facilities are attached as fixtures and become permanent parts of the building. Unfortunately, these water treatment facilities are typically located in unsecured spaces with no measures to prevent tampering. 
     The fact that these water treatment facilities are fixtures means that once placed into a hemodialysis center, they can not be easily removed. Additionally, from a tax consequence, these items are treated as fixtures as opposed to personal property. 
     Because of the sheer size of the systems and the manner in which they have been piped, if an element goes out, the system can have a significant down time. 
     Additionally, the sheer size of these systems creates large areas for bacteria growth and the potential for “dead legs.” Dead legs are zones or segments of piping where fluids remain quiescent (limited circulation) either continuously or intermittently. Dead legs are typically defined as dead end piping terminations or cavities that are longer than six (6) pipe diameters from the active piping. Dead legs can provide locations for bacteria to breed, increasing the concentration of pyrogens and endotoxins in the water supply. Additionally, current systems are assembled using solvent welded joints which require special assembly, cleaning and flushing procedures. 
     Smaller, portable systems have been described. However, these systems are not designed for use in a dialysis clinic, where a volume of water must be purified sufficiently to be used in multiple dialysis machines. U.S. Pat. No. 5,591,344 to Kenley, et al., describes a portable reverse osmosis system for use in a home or a room in a convalescent center. The system is part of a portable dialysis unit, and is made of components which can withstand heat disinfection. Hot and cold water are mixed to a temperature appropriate for use in a dialysis machine. Sensors detect abnormalities in the system, and operation is described on a visual display with touch screen. However, the system described consists of two subunits—a water pretreatment subunit fitted under a bathroom or kitchen sink, and a water treatment subunit which comprises part of the portable dialysis machine module. Sampling ports are described, but these ports are located at various points within the system, and samples must be taken using a syringe in order to avoid contaminating the system. Sampling is not (lone from a single location, where ports are accessible from outside the system, while other components remain inaccessible and resistant to tampering. The system must be exposed for sampling, and therefore potential tampering may occur during the sampling process. 
     The system described by of Kenley, et al., also constitutes a system for individual use rather than describing a portable system capable of providing water for a number of dialysis machines within a dialysis clinic. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,579 to Horner, et al., also describes a portable reverse osmosis system for the purification of water. However, this system is designed to purify water to a portable drinking water level and not to a level of purity appropriate for hemodialysis. The system output is described as no more than 20 gallons per minute. Fluid connections between components of the systems described by Horner and Kenley are relatively fixed. At best, they may be heat disinfected, as described by Kenley. 
     Previous inventions, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,565 to Levin, et al., have described heat disinfection of dialysis machines or water treatment units. The size or composition of most systems presently in use for dialysis clinics makes heat disinfection difficult and prohibits the use of heat sterilization techniques. A system with removable and replaceable autoclavable components would provide distinct benefits in a health care setting. 
     In present systems, fixed pipe and valve configurations require technical operators to follow precise instructions on the turning of flow valves whenever carbon treatment tanks are replaced (typically every 90 days). The complexity and infrequent operation of replacement creates a potential hazard that the setting of valves will permit the changed carbon tanks to be “bypassed,” thereby permitting unsafe levels of chlorine and chloramine to come in contact with patient&#39;s blood through artificial kidney dialysis. 
     What is needed, then, is a system which eliminates tampering or inadvertent positioning of valves leading to bypass of critical water purifying elements. What is needed is a method and design which prevents the operator from operating the system without carbon treatment. This needed system must provide an outer skin or housing which provides “tamper resistant” packaging which may be monitored for tampering. This needed system must reduce the size of a standard water treatment plant by at least one-third thereby allowing economical use of Teflon®, stainless steel, and other more appropriate heat disinfectable or sterilizable but more expensive materials. This needed system must be mobile and fully modular allowing significant reduction in times for service plus allowing depreciation as personal property. This needed system must provide components which can be heat disinfected or sterilized in addition to conventional chemical disinfection. This needed system must minimize dead legs. This needed system must minimize any inefficiencies of design conversions. This needed system must be designed to reduce factors which favor microbiological growth. This needed system must allow the removal and replacement of certain elements with minimal time and expense. This needed system must allow service while in operation. The needed system must, by design, be manufactured to ensure the quality of the system, the efficiency of the process, the reproducibility of the product, and the security of the system. What is needed is a large scale portable system for relief of dialysis treatment needs in disaster areas or parts of the United States and other countries lacking in quality technical personnel. This system must be capable of being remotely and digitally monitored. This system must provide an audit trail for verifying system operation and quality of product and which is remotely monitored. What is needed is a system which allows for easy substitution or addition of water purifying elements such as ultra filters, ultraviolet disinfection lights, or other purifying elements and allows for the easy configuring of system components in series or parallel to achieve greater process reliability through redundancy, improved water quality, and/or greater flow capacity. This needed system is presently lacking in the prior art. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention discloses a portable water treatment facility. The water treatment facility has housing on castors. The housing fully encloses all the water treatment components and interconnect piping to comprise a water treatment member. The housing has various doors which are locked to make the housing tamper resistant. The housing has an external sampling station which allows a technician at any point in time to sample liquids being provided by the enclosed water treatment system for assay and verification of the water quality at various treatment points against specified values. This system has a modular water treatment member consisting of various filters, tanks, and pumps which are attached to one another by short fluid conduits with valved quick disconnects. 
     Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to eliminate tampering. 
     Another object of the present invention is to prevent inadvertent positioning of valves which would lead to bypass of critical water purification elements (carbon filtration). 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide an outer skin which provides tamper resistant enclosure which may be monitored for tampering. 
     Another object of the present invention is to reduce the size of a standard water treatment plant thereby reducing the floor area required for installation and allowing smaller building requirements, economical use of Teflon®, stainless steel, and other more appropriate, sterilizable, but more expensive materials. 
     Another object of the present invention is, by reducing its size, to minimize surface areas available for bacterial growth. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a unit which is mobile. 
     Still another object of the present invention is to provide a unit which is fully modular thereby allowing sufficiently reduced times for service. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a system which can be leased or depreciated as personal property as opposed to being a fixture. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide components which can be heat disinfected or sterilized in addition to conventional chemical disinfection. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a design which minimizes dead legs. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a system which allows for easy substitution or addition of water purifying elements such as ultra filters, ultraviolet disinfection devices, or other purifying elements and allows for the easy configuring of system components in series or parallel to achieve greater process reliability through redundancy, improved water quality, and/or greater flow capacity. 
     A still further object of the present invention is to provide a system which is modular and allows for easy design conversions. 
     Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a system which eliminates solvent joints and other potential sites for microbiological growth. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a system which allows for removal and replacement of components with a minimal time and expense. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a system which allows for service while in operation. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a water purification system for dialysis needs to disaster areas or parts of the world lacking in qualified technical personnel. 
     An object of the present invention is to provide a digitally and remotely monitored system that can also provide an audit trail locally or remotely to verify system operation and product quality. 
     Other objects of the invention include an audit trail which may be produced of unit operation and the quality of water produced; provide a system which is fully and continuously monitored for efficiency of operation and quality of product; may be remotely monitored; and operation data may be logged and tended over time. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is an isometric view of the portable water treatment facility of the present invention. 
     FIG. 2 is a process flow diagram of the water treatment member of the present invention. 
     FIG. 3 is a top view of the system of the present invention. 
     FIG. 4 is a rear view of the system of the present invention. 
     FIG. 5 is a left side view of the water treatment facility of the present invention. 
     FIG. 6 is a right side view of the system of the present invention. 
     FIG. 7 is a front view of the system of the present invention. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown generally at  10  the portable water treatment facility of the present invention. Generally, facility  10  has housing  12  on castors  14 , housing  12  houses and encapsulates water treatment member  16 . Water treatment member  16  will be described in greater detail later. Housing  12  generally has roof  20  joined to base  22  by left side  24 , right side  26 , front  28 , and rear  30 . In the preferred embodiment, housing  12  forms a box. However, any shape can be used that encompasses water treatment member  16  and makes it tamper resistant if desired. Left side  24  and right side  26  can have side doors  32 . In the preferred embodiment, side door  32  is a sliding aluminum steel frame door having side door lock  34 . In order to access either right side  26  or left side  24 , side door  32  can have side door lock  34  unlocked and side door  32  can be raised. Rear  30  can have any type of door as well as to access the rear components. In the preferred embodiment, front  28  has first front door  40  having first front door lock  42  and second front door  44  with second front door lock  46 . In the preferred embodiment, front doors  40 ,  44  are made of high impact plastic, preferably Lexan® polymer, sheets. This can make front doors  40 ,  44  both tamper resistant as well as transparent so that a technician can view water treatment member  16  without opening doors  40 ,  44 . In the preferred embodiment, sample station  48  is provided so that a technician at any time can get any one of preferably four sample buttons  50  to obtain samples of water prior to and after treatment by the various unit operations. 
     Referring now to FIG. 2, there is shown generally at  16  a block diagram view of the water treatment member of the present invention. As can be seen, cold water  100  and hot water  102  forming water source  101  come into water treatment  16  while waste material  104  is removed from member  16  by drain  108 . As cold water  100  and hot water  102  come into system, water passes through tempering or water blending valve  80  which controls the temperature of the combination of cold water  100  and hot water  102 . If the water needs to be hotter, more hot water is added by automatic adjustment of tempering valve  80 . If the water needs to be colder, more cold water is added. After passing through tempering valve  80 , first pressure monitor  82  measures the pressure of the incoming water, first temperature monitor  81  ensures that the right mix of cold water  100  and hot water  102  is being achieved, first pH monitor  79  monitors pH of water source  101 , and first flow rate monitor  78  measures flow rate. Pressure regulation or reduction valve  83  assists in ensuring the appropriate water pressure. Mixed water  106  then passes through first pump  84  (optional) to achieve the necessary pressure entering the next section of the system should city water pressure be inadequate. Second pressure monitor  86  (optional) ensures that pump  84  is creating the right head or pressure on the water  106 . Water  106  then passes through cartridge filters  88  to sift out particulate matter. Filtered water pressure gauge  87  measures the water pressure passing out of cartridge filters  88 . Sample port  89  is provided to measure the quality of water after being filtered by cartridge filter  88 . Filtered water  107  is then sent into water softener  90 . Soft water monitor  92  then measures soft water pressure. Soft water sampling port  91  then allows user to sample softened water  109 . Soft water passes through first carbon filter or tank  94 ′ and then second carbon filter or tank  94 ′. Carbon filter pressure monitors  97 ′ and  97 ″ monitor pressure after respective filters  94 ′ and  94 ′. Also carbon sample port  99  allows user to sample water after first carbon filter  94 ′ to ensure that carbon filter  94 ′ is working. If not, second filter  94 ″ will act as a back-up in case carbon filter  94 ′ is spent. Carbon filters  94  filter out organic material and dissolved gases (particularly chlorine and chloramines). Carbon filter backwash waste  95  passes into drain  104  (optional). Carbon-filtered water  112  is then sent into pretreatment cartridge filter  114 . Water is then pressure monitored at reverse osmosis feed water pressure monitor  116  before passing into reverse osmosis unit  118 . Before passing into circulation pump  128 , RO water  130  passes through permeate pressure monitor  132  and permeate conductivity monitor  134 . RO water can be sampled at RO sampling valve  136 . Circulated water  138  then passes into water input flow monitor  98  before passing into circulated pressure monitor  140 . Circulated water  138  then passes into storage tanks  124  having level indicator monitor  144 . Waste water is directed into drain  108 . After passing into water storage  124 , water flows through loop piping  123  into dialysis units  110 . In the preferred embodiment, water storage units  124  are sized sufficiently to allow any of the upstream components to be exchanged without having to terminate the flow of liquid into dialysis units  110 . 
     Referring now to FIG. 3, there is shown generally at  10  a top view of the portable water treatment facility. Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3 at the same time, one can see that water coming into system first passes through pump  84  before passing into cartridge filter  88 . Water passes from cartridge filter  88  into water softener  90  and then into carbon filters  94 . In the preferred embodiment, first carbon filter  94 ′ and second carbon filter  94 ″ are provided in series to provide enhanced and redundant filtering and so carbon filter  94 ′ may serve as back-up in case the carbon in carbon filter  94 ′ is spent. Water passes from carbon filters  94  through pretreatment cartridge filter  114 . From filter  114 , water passes through feed water manifold  61  to reverse osmosis (R.O.) machines  118  in reverse osmosis cabinet  122 . Purified R.O. water collects and travels through permeate manifold  63  to reverse osmosis water circulation pump  128 . Reverse osmosis waste reject water collects and travels through reject manifold to drain  106 . Water treatment member  16  also provides storage tanks  124 . In the preferred embodiment, first tank  124 ′ and second tank  124 ″ operate so that one can be serviced without interrupting water delivery. In the preferred embodiment, each of carbon filters  94 , brine tank  56 , water softener  90 , and storage tanks  124  are placed in structural aluminum frames  52  on structural aluminum frame castors  54  so that they can be removed easily. FIG. 3 also shows monitoring system  60  which, among other things, monitors  82 ,  86 ,  92 , and  96 . Reverse osmosis cabinet  122  provides, in the preferred embodiment, a framework on castors which may support a single or multiple reverse osmosis machines for connection to feed water supply manifold  61 , reject manifold  62 , and permeate manifold  63 . As can be seen in FIG. 3, feed brine tank  56  performs the function of regeneration of the water softener  90 . 
     Referring now to FIG. 4, there is shown generally at  10  a rear view of the system of the present invention. This view shows permeate storage tank  124 , carbon filter  94 , and water softener tank  90 . This also shows the connection between carbon filter  94  and softener  90  through third pressure monitor  92 . Also, this drawing shows boost pump  84  (optional) and circulation pump  128 . Further, this particular figures shows that carbon filter  94 ′, water softener  90 , and water storage  124  are placed in aluminum frame  52  on aluminum frame castor  54 . Aluminum frame castors  54  combined with castors  14  make the entire system easily portable. 
     Referring now to FIG. 5, there is shown generally at  10  the portable water treatment facility of the present invention. In this embodiment, carbon filters  94 ′,  94 ″ are shown. Preferably cartridge filters  88 ′,  88 ″ and  114  are mounted proximal to carbon filters  94 . This view also shows a portion of storage members  124 ′ and  124 ″. Further, this view shows a side view of monitoring system  60 . 
     Referring now to FIG. 6, there is shown generally at  10  another view of the present invention. As can be seen, permeate storage tanks  124 ′ and  124 ″ are split into housing  12  using structural aluminum frames  52  on castors  54 . Additionally, a portion of carbon filters  94 ′, &#39; 94 ″ are shown together with reverse osmosis cabinet  122 . 
     Referring now to FIG. 7, there is shown generally at  10  another view of the present invention. In this particular embodiment, monitoring system  60  is shown in great detail. In the preferred embodiment, monitoring system  60  has standard computer monitor  64  for displaying the status of the system. In the preferred embodiment, inputs from the various monitors and filters as well as door lock monitors are fed into a system which is programmed using Labview™ for Windows™. Attached to monitor  64 , there is keyboard  65  and CPU  66 . Monitoring system  60  is electronically connected into computer system  67 . FIG. 7 also shows sampling station  48  and buttons  50 . FIG. 7 further shows the various manifolds such as feed water manifold  61 , permeate manifold  63 , and reject manifold  62 . Position of blending valve  80 , and first temperature gauge  81  are shown to demonstrate the interaction between temperature gauge  81  increasing the flow of water through valve  80  of either hot water  102  or cold water  100 . Pressure gauge  82  cooperates with first pressure regulation valve  83  to ensure that the water passing into cartridge filters  88  are at the right pressures. Finally, FIG. 7 also contains conductivity meter  68  which measures conductivity providing an indication of water quality. 
     In the preferred embodiment, cartridge filters  88  are Aqua pure  25  to micron filter  2 . In the preferred embodiment, carbon filters  94  are Osmonics AC36P filters. In the preferred embodiment water softeners  90  are Culligan HiFlo 2 automatic water softeners. 
     Thus, although there have been described particular embodiments of the present invention of a new and useful Portable Water Treatment Facility, it is not intended that such references be construed as limitations upon the scope of this invention except as set forth in the following claims.