Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B01—PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL
  • B01J—CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROCESSES, e.g. CATALYSIS OR COLLOID CHEMISTRY; THEIR RELEVANT APPARATUS
  • B01J19/00—Chemical, physical or physico-chemical processes in general; Their relevant apparatus
  • B01J19/08—Processes employing the direct application of electric or wave energy, or particle radiation; Apparatus therefor
  • B01J19/10—Processes employing the direct application of electric or wave energy, or particle radiation; Apparatus therefor employing sonic or ultrasonic vibrations
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B01—PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL
  • B01J—CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROCESSES, e.g. CATALYSIS OR COLLOID CHEMISTRY; THEIR RELEVANT APPARATUS
  • B01J19/00—Chemical, physical or physico-chemical processes in general; Their relevant apparatus
  • B01J19/008—Processes for carrying out reactions under cavitation conditions
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C02—TREATMENT OF WATER, WASTE WATER, SEWAGE, OR SLUDGE
  • C02F—TREATMENT OF WATER, WASTE WATER, SEWAGE, OR SLUDGE
  • C02F1/00—Treatment of water, waste water, or sewage
  • C02F1/34—Treatment of water, waste water, or sewage with mechanical oscillations
  • C02F1/36—Treatment of water, waste water, or sewage with mechanical oscillations ultrasonic vibrations
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F24—HEATING; RANGES; VENTILATING
  • F24V—COLLECTION, PRODUCTION OR USE OF HEAT NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • F24V99/00—Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C02—TREATMENT OF WATER, WASTE WATER, SEWAGE, OR SLUDGE
  • C02F—TREATMENT OF WATER, WASTE WATER, SEWAGE, OR SLUDGE
  • C02F1/00—Treatment of water, waste water, or sewage
  • C02F1/50—Treatment of water, waste water, or sewage by addition or application of a germicide or by oligodynamic treatment
  • C02F1/505—Treatment of water, waste water, or sewage by addition or application of a germicide or by oligodynamic treatment by oligodynamic treatment
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C02—TREATMENT OF WATER, WASTE WATER, SEWAGE, OR SLUDGE
  • C02F—TREATMENT OF WATER, WASTE WATER, SEWAGE, OR SLUDGE
  • C02F2103/00—Nature of the water, waste water, sewage or sludge to be treated
  • C02F2103/42—Nature of the water, waste water, sewage or sludge to be treated from bathing facilities, e.g. swimming pools
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C02—TREATMENT OF WATER, WASTE WATER, SEWAGE, OR SLUDGE
  • C02F—TREATMENT OF WATER, WASTE WATER, SEWAGE, OR SLUDGE
  • C02F2303/00—Specific treatment goals
  • C02F2303/04—Disinfection

Definitions

• the present invention describes an apparatus for purifying and processing liquids by transient hydrodynamic cavitation, ionization and dissolution of gas micro and nanobubbles.
• Cavitation is a physical phenomenon inherent in fluids which, in the case of liquids, consists in the appearance of microbubbles of steam, being caused by the increase of temperature beyond the "vapor temperature” of this liquid, when the change to the gas phase occurs. Also the sudden reduction in pressure in the liquid environment, below the so-called “vapor pressure”, causes the appearance of microbubbles, filled with extremely thin steam, which are therefore unstable and violently implode when the initial pressure of the liquid is restored. releasing energy in the form of heat and shock waves. This cycle, which comprises nucleation, growth and collapse of microbubbles, is called “transient cavitation”.
• the amount of energy released is related to the size and shape of the microbubbles, being proportional to the applied pressure and inversely proportional to the duration of the implosion.
• pressures above 100 MPa and temperatures above 5000 ° K are easily achieved.
• Another phenomenon related to transient cavitation is erosion over solids immersed in cavitation zones by the removal of small amounts of surface material by High-speed micro-jets of liquid emitted by microbubbles, which become asymmetric when they collapse near solid surfaces.
• Ultrasonic cavitation is obtained by sound wave generators with frequencies between 16 kHz and 20 MHz, which are produced by an electronic electric pulse generator, which drives a piezoelectric transducer placed inside or attached to the walls of the liquid reservoir. which transmits a movement vibratory, establishing a resonant system. Sound waves form rarefied vapor microbubbles during the passage of the low pressure zones (armholes), growing at each of these passages until they become unstable and implode during the passage of a high pressure zone (crest), as exemplified in Fig. 4
• ultrasonic frequency wave cavitation equipment such as US Patent Nos. 5937906, RU2254912, DE4204607 and JP2008036555, which, however, are limited to small volume tanks, as sound waves lose energy when traveling. away from the generating source. In addition, they are expensive equipment and require electrical power.
• Hydrodynamic cavitation can be obtained through hydrosonic pumps, which are composed of a rotating cylinder inserted in a cylindrical chamber, with a small gap between them; The rotary cylinder is provided with a large number of blind peripheral holes.
• These equipments require high tangential rotor speed (over 57 m / ”) to produce useful cavitation and therefore cannot be built on a small scale.
• motors with more than 30 hp, produce huge vibration due to constant random rotor unbalance, as the amount of liquid inside each of the peripheral orifices varies from time to time and there is no way to equalize it. This vibration plus that produced by cavitation destroys the bearings or bearings of the shaft shaft in a short time.
• An example of a hydrodynamic cavitation equipment by means of a hydrosonic pump is that described in US5188090.
• hydrosonic pump which has rotors similar to those of ordinary centrifugal pumps, but with a slit-permeated cylindrical edge, which rotates at high speed inside another similar cylindrical section, also with slits, called stator;
• stator a slit-permeated cylindrical edge, which rotates at high speed inside another similar cylindrical section, also with slits, called stator;
• stator a slit-permeated cylindrical edge
• Hydrodynamic cavitation by radial shear of two opposite-direction counter-flow streams consists of dividing one flow of liquid into two others and causing them to collide frontally, each passing through turbine vanes which give them intense deflection. to generate counter-rotative vortices, so that when they meet, they expand radially, forming two disks with opposite rotations, at whose interface numerous microvortices are produced by shear; At the center of these microvortices, the low pressure generates cavitation microbubbles that collapse as they migrate to the peripheral regions, where the microvortices are disrupted and the pressure returns to its initial level. Appliances with this function are moderately efficient in controlling scale and bacteria scale in cooling tower installations.
• Single vortex hydrodynamic cavitation reactors consist of one or more holes aligned tangentially to the walls of a cylindrical tube through which a liquid is injected at high velocity, forming a vortex within which low pressure produces cavitation microbubbles.
• they are constructive variations of the Hilsch-Rankine tube applied in heating and purification of liquids and are described in documents RU2045715, RU2045715, US6221260 and UAI 6659.
• the yield obtained is poor.
• nozzles or nozzles which generally consist of the first half of a venturi with normal flow annular depressions, toroidal vortices are generated within which cavitation microbubbles are nucleated.
• These nozzles are used to discharge microbubble jets into tanks and pools where they collapse. Their efficiency is low but acceptable as they are inexpensive and easy to install at the pipe discharge point of pumping systems already in operation.
• These equipments have low energy efficiency and limitation to use below water in tanks and swimming pools. They cannot completely destroy microalgae and do not destroy bacteria and viruses in larger tanks and are described in US6221260, US6200486, JP2001009447 and JP201 1245582.
• the energy response of a useful transient cavitation process is related to several aspects such as:
• microbubbles the sphericity of microbubbles, which is determined by viscosity, surface tension, molecular weight, temperature and electromagnetic nature of the liquid molecules. In the case of water, the process is favored by the bipolar nature of the molecules and their hydrogen bonds that impose high surface tension;
• an object of the present invention is an apparatus for generating useful cavitation in liquid streams by means of transient cavitation processes (nucleation, rarefied microbubble implosion growth), which incorporates, when the objective is purification and sterilization of these liquids. , ionization and electrolysis of low intensity and dissolution of micro and nanobubbles of atmospheric air or any other gas;
• This apparatus is capable of producing transient hydrodynamic cavitation even in low pressure systems from 50 kPa onwards because of its ability to partially and intermittently interrupt flow so as to accumulate downstream pressure for a short time to immediately release it through a venturi choke, thus obtaining high velocity, proportional drop in local pressure and generation of a high intensity wave system.
• It is a feature of the invention an apparatus for sterilizing and purifying liquids that generates and uses medium intensity primary hydrodynamic cavitation in a continuous liquid stream to drive a device that causes brief partial interruptions in flow, making it intermittent, producing high pressure spikes at downstream low pressure to generate hydrosonic cavitation, ie, cavitation produced by high frequency, low frequency audible subsonic pressure or shock waves, typically below 1 kHz, with nucleation time, growth and microbubble collapse greater than 0.001 ", wave pressure greater than 2.5 kPa and propagation velocity greater than 500 m /", which, when partially resonantly reflected within a tube, also generate ultrasonic, inaudible frequencies.
• the present apparatus causes the destruction of microorganisms of any kind, both by the large fluctuation of the pressure of the main shockwaves and their impacts, as well as by the shockwaves coming from the collapse of millions of microbubbles, generated by the three cavitation modalities it produces. , also strong enough to break the cell membrane of any microorganism.
• a sterilizing and purifying apparatus which uses as a driving force any pump capable of providing pressure greater than 50 kPa, as well as natural flow rates with a head above 5 mca, generating minimal pressure drop and dispensing electrical and electrical installation. whereas in circuits that already use pumps for circulation, filtration and discharge, especially water, can be installed in series and used during these activities with operation cost close to zero.
• a major and special feature of the present invention is an apparatus for sterilizing and purifying water, especially from leisure pools, spas, hot tubs, water tanks for human and animal consumption, cooling tower water, heat exchangers and boilers, besides producing all the other physical and chemical phenomena inherent in the transient cavitation of liquids already mentioned.
• the appliance is fitted with a single, lightweight, lightweight, easy-to-install mobile part that can be manufactured from any engineering material, including thermoplastics so it is cost effective and fully recyclable.
• Figure 1 shows a longitudinal sectional view of the present invention in its basic model with a single venturi-shaped tubular section assembly (5) and flow modulator (6).
• Figure 2 shows a cross-sectional view of the preferred embodiment which has more than one Venturi-shaped tubular section assembly (5) and flow modulator (6).
• Figure 3 schematically exemplifies the operating cycle of the present apparatus, showing in view A, the formation of a low pressure zone downstream of said flow modulator (6) where nucleation and growth of microbubbles occurs. rarefied vapor at the moment of obstruction of the liquid passage and, in view B, the next moment, when the accumulated pressure of the liquid is released and forms a high pressure pulse, imploding the microbubbles.
• Figure 4 illustrates the way the thin vapor vapor microbubbles () grow and collapse within a volume of liquid subjected to ultrasound emission.
• Figure 5 shows the nucleation, growth and collapse cycle of microbubbles () in a volume subjected to low frequency pressure wave action over a single wave period.
• Figure 6 shows the spectrum of a recording of the main pressure waves with frequency of 190 Hz and an ultrasonic secondary frequency.
• Figure 7 shows the schematic drawing of the gas injector () or atmospheric air arrangement.
• Figure 8 schematically exemplifies the constructive arrangement of an apparatus with external flow and frequency regulation.
• the apparatus for sterilizing and purifying liquids object of the present invention produces hydrodynamic, subsonic hydrosonic and ultrasonic ultrasonic cavitation simultaneously and through them metal ionization and dissolution of gas micro and nanobubbles in a liquid flow in a pipe; comprises a tubular body (1) provided with an opening (2) suitable for ingress of liquid flow (3) to be treated and another opening (4) for the outlet of such liquid; in the middle part, said tubular body (1) houses at least one set of parts formed by a venturi-shaped tubular section (5) within which a flow modulator (6) is concentrically positioned; said flow modulator (6) has a curved, preferably oblong, profile which, at least in the upstream half of the flow, is approximately the shape of a truncated warhead, the largest outer diameter of which is equal to or slightly smaller than the smallest inner diameter of the said venturi-shaped tubular section (5), having a longitudinal cylindrical bore (7) through which it is held in position by an axis (8) passing through the geometric center of said
• Rapid and intermittent partial interruptions in liquid flow actually produce small, controlled, partial water hammer strokes that generate strong pressure or shock waves consisting of a high pressure, or crest, part-time wave ( 14), and from another low pressure half-wave period, or pit (15), which propagate within the apparatus and, less intensely, in the pipe, in accordance with Allievi's formula;
• This wave train begins and propagates within a tube, said resonance tube (16), which behaves like a Helmhotz resonator and is an extension of said venturi-shaped tubular section (5);
• said resonance tube (16) is provided with peripheral holes (17) for the release and flow of liquid flow (3) and ends in a cap, said reflector (18), whose plane is normal to its longitudinal axis; said reflective cap (18) causes a portion of the incident pressure waves to be reflected in the opposite direction, that is, back to said flow modulator (6), thus establishing a second resonant system with directly proportional frequency.
• Substantial increase in yield and in the efficiency of the present apparatus is obtained by linearly joining more than one of said venturi-shaped tubular sections (5) and more than one of said flow modulators (6), which are supported by a same axis (8), as illustrates figure 2.
• Said resonance tube (16) is inserted and fixed within said tubular body (1), maintaining a space or chamber (19) between the inner walls thereof (1) and the outer wall thereof (16) so that the liquid, upon leaving the interior of said resonance tube (16) through said side holes (7), flows through that space (18) to the outlet opening (4), so that said tube resonance (16) remains surrounded by the liquid that fulfills the function of absorbing the sound energy it emits and minimize the noise produced by cavitation.
• the cavitation produced within said resonance tube (16) generates electrical potential between this (16) and said axis (8) and (or) said tubular body (1) when it is constructed of electrically conductive materials, causing whereas in addition to cavitational erosion caused by well-known liquid microjets emitted during microbubble implosion, there is erosion by electrolysis of said resonance tube (16), turning it into a sacrificial anode;
• an electronic current rectifier device (20) ensures that the current is passed in only one direction; when the liquid being treated is water, the use of biocidal metals, such as copper and silver, in the construction of said resonance tube (16) enables the dissolution of ions of these metals in the liquid medium, with the purpose of to prevent the development of microalgae and other microorganisms in water reservoirs and to accelerate the purification process;
• This residual action is enhanced when there is an electrolyte such as NaCl dissolved in water, which, as a result of microbubble collapse and electric charge generation, syner
• the strong resonant vibration that is part of said reflective cap (18) has sufficient mechanical energy to drive an electrostatic, electromagnetic or piezoelectric electricity generator capable of producing additional electrical power and utilizing it in the electrolysis process; also the injection of a small volume of atmospheric air into the low pressure region (21) of said venturi-shaped tubular section (5) is used to accelerate the oxy-reduction process; For this to occur, the present device has a gas injector tube (22) which connects the interior of the low pressure zone (21) of said venturi-shaped tubular section (5) with the exterior of the apparatus.
• said gas injector (22) at its outer end has a check valve (24), the function of which is to prevent liquid leakage during the time the present apparatus remains off, and a pneumatic regulating valve flow rate (25), which allows to regulate the amount of gas to be dissolved in the liquid medium.
• said axis (8) is extended out of said tubular body (1) through the reflective cap (18), where it has handling means (26).

Landscapes

• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Organic Chemistry (AREA)
• Chemical Kinetics & Catalysis (AREA)
• Combustion & Propulsion (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Hydrology & Water Resources (AREA)
• Environmental & Geological Engineering (AREA)
• Water Supply & Treatment (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Thermal Sciences (AREA)
• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Toxicology (AREA)
• Physical Or Chemical Processes And Apparatus (AREA)
• Physical Water Treatments (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=50067316

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (2)

Cited By (1)

Families Citing this family (1)

Citations (3)

• 2012
  • 2012-08-09 BR BRBR102012019938-6A patent/BR102012019938A2/pt not_active Application Discontinuation
• 2013
  • 2013-08-09 WO PCT/BR2013/000303 patent/WO2014022902A1/fr not_active Ceased

Patent Citations (3)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

Also Published As

Similar Documents

Legal Events