Patent ID: 8323489

Claim:
A water treatment vessel for removing immiscible fluid from contaminated water to produce cleaned water, the vessel disposable in a vertical orientation, comprising: a chamber; an injection line in fluid communication with an inlet of the chamber, the injection line for containing and transmitting the contaminated water from a source to inlet weir means located in said chamber; bubble generation means in fluid communication with the injection line for injecting gas microbubbles into the injection line and allowing mixing in the injection line of the gas microbubbles and the contaminated water to form an inlet fluid; said inlet weir means comprising at least a pair of inlet weirs, respectively disposed along two mutually opposite inner surfaces of the chamber, a first of said inlet weirs adapted for fluid communication with said inlet and thus in fluid communication with said injection line and said inlet fluid; immiscible fluid weirs extending diametrically across an interior of said chamber so as to bifurcate a cross-section of said chamber, supported within the chamber by first mount means, spaced from the inlet weir means; an inclined trough comprising part of said immiscible fluid weirs, for collecting the immiscible fluid and allowing the immiscible fluid which flows over the immiscible fluid weirs to flow out of the chamber through an immiscible fluid outlet; and a cleaned water outlet generally at the bottom of the chamber; wherein when the inlet fluid is injected into the chamber and into the first inlet weir, the inlet fluid passes over the first inlet weir, the cleaned water flows downwardly toward the bottom of the chamber and through the cleaned water outlet; and wherein a mixture of the immiscible fluid and the gas microbubbles floats through the chamber to pass over the immiscible fluid weirs and down the trough to the immiscible fluid outlet.