PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16016631
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-06
Publication Date: 2018-10
Patent Classification: ["210", "750000"]

Abstract:
Method and apparatus for treating potable water in municipal and similar tanks to reduce and remove undesirable disinfectant byproducts such as trihalomethanes from the water by providing a water circulation system to create circulation patterns in the tank water and an air flow system for creating an air flow pattern in the headspace region of the enclosed tank above the water surface. In operation, a portion of the tank water is drawn-up a draft tube from the tank floor to above the water surface and sprayed through a nozzle outwardly about a vertical axis and slightly downwardly toward the surface of remaining tank water. The air flow system creates and directs a high volume of air through the tank above the water surface to volatize undesirable trihalomethanes in the drawn-up water portion to gaseous state to enter the air flow pattern and exit the tank into ambient air.

Claim (Index 1):
A method for treating water laden with trihalomethanes (THM) in liquid state in an enclosed tank having a ceiling, floor, and side walls extending between the ceiling and floor to contain the water therein with the surface of the water spaced at least a first distance below the ceiling of the tank to create an air gap region between the ceiling and the surface of the water therebelow, said method including the steps of:\n (a) providing a water circulation system for creating a circulation pattern of the water laden with THM in said tank (1) by continuously moving up a portion of the water from the depths of the tank into an inlet of a draft tube and up through said draft tube to a first location above the surface of the remaining water and (2) by thereafter spraying the upwardly moved portion of the water into the air gap region in a spray pattern (i) outwardly above the surface of the remaining water in the tank about a vertical axis toward the side walls of the tank and (ii) with at least a portion of said spray pattern directed slightly downwardly toward the surface of the remaining water thereby continuously circulating the remaining water in the tank radially outwardly of and about said vertical axis adjacent the surface of the water in the tank toward said tank side walls, downwardly along the tank side walls, and inwardly across the floor toward the inlet to the draft tube with said portion thereof moved upwardly through said draft tube to said first location above the surface of the remaining water in the tank and sprayed outwardly into said air gap region toward the surface of the remaining water wherein the upwardly moved water portion laden with THM sprayed into the air gap region is exposed to the air in said air gap region and the THM in liquid state therein volatized by the air exposure to a gaseous state in said air gap region and (b) providing an air flow system for creating a continuous air flow pattern directed above and across the surface of the remaining water in the tank from ambient, atmospheric air outside of the tank continuously through the tank from an inlet in the tank into the air gap region above the surface of the remaining water in the tank and back out of the air gap region above the surface of the remaining water in the tank through an air outlet in the tank into the ambient, atmospheric air by establishing a pressure differential between the air inlet and the air outlet of the tank, and further including the step that said provided air flow system is further capable of directing at least a portion of said air flow pattern toward and into the spray pattern of step (a)(2) of the upwardly moved water portion above the surface of the remaining water in the tank wherein the THM in liquid state upwardly moved through the draft tube and volatized to gaseous state in the air gap region above the surface of the remaining water in the tank enters the air flow pattern in the tank above the surface of the remaining water in the tank and exits the tank with the air flow pattern through the air outlet of the tank.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 51.0
- Percentile: 94.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.05405
- Patent Class: 210.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: none
- Component Type: 0
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['13763379', '14520002', '15241980', '13233536', '12361102']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7755006151662729
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5451267090718609
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7524632245568317
- Mean Citation Score: 248.452064
- Max Citation Score: 386.48926
- Similarity Product: 334.1048018722951

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test