WO2013051078A1 - Apparatus for producing drinking water - Google Patents

Abstract

[Problem] To provide an apparatus for producing drinking water that is as compact and inexpensive as a general household refrigerator, said apparatus being capable of producing large quantities of mineral water suitable for drinking, from seawater contaminated with radioactive substances, bacteria, and the like. [Solution] This apparatus for producing drinking water is configured in such a manner as to be equipped with: a seawater pre-filtration apparatus; a high-pressure pump for sending seawater filtered by the pre-filtration equipment to a first reverse osmosis membrane filtration apparatus, and filtering the seawater at high pressure; a second reverse osmosis membrane filtration apparatus for filtering the concentrated water of the first reverse osmosis membrane filtration apparatus at high pressure using the high-pressure pump; and a tank for storing purified water, which has been desalinated by filtration using both reverse osmosis membrane filtration apparatuses, and allowed to passed through a mineral extraction vessel, as mineral water. Using a compact pump and compact reverse osmosis membrane filtration apparatuses, the apparatus can be configured in such a manner that large quantities of mineral water can be obtained, and can be significantly reduced in size.

Description

Drinking water production equipment

The present invention relates to an ultra-compact and inexpensive drinking water production apparatus capable of removing contaminants from seawater contaminated with radioactive substances, bacteria, organic substances, inorganic substances, etc., and providing mineral water suitable for delicious beverages. .

In many parts of the world, water shortages due to climate change due to global warming, overdeveloped forests, disasters and droughts are becoming more serious.
According to UN statistics, 18 million children die each year due to unsanitary water, and by 2025, 3 billion people may face water shortages.

Therefore, how to secure safe drinking water is a big issue in various parts of the world.
Although 70% of the earth is said to be the sea, the above problems can be solved if drinking water can be produced from this seawater. However, conventional devices for producing drinking water from seawater require a large amount of power. It is a large device.
For this reason, the device itself is very expensive and requires operating costs, so that the situation is not widespread in poor areas such as the Middle East and Asia.

The present applicant has developed a pump that is driven by a small amount of electric power, succeeded in developing a drinking water production apparatus that is small enough to be loaded on a truck, and previously filed a patent application (Patent Document 1). However, since it was still large and expensive, it was not widely used in poor areas such as the Middle East and Asia. Further, there is a strong demand for an inexpensive and ultra-small drinking water production apparatus.

In order to produce about 2 tons of drinking water a day from seawater with a small pump, it is necessary to increase the amount of water that passes through the RO membrane (reverse osmosis membrane). And need a big pump. Even if multiple RO membranes are provided in parallel, the desired amount of drinking water cannot be produced unless a large pump is used.

Also, if it is configured to automatically repeat operation and stop when the power is turned on, the device can be placed near the sea and mineral drinking water can be taken out safely in the house. In addition, the tank can always store a certain amount of mineral water, so it can always supply the required amount of mineral water when needed, so the required amount of mineral water is automatically produced. Can do. As a result, it is possible to produce about 2 tons of mineral water per day.

Also, to produce drinking water from seawater, it is advantageous to place the device near the seawater so that drinking water can be drunk in the house. However, such a device is not known at all.
Also, if soft water mineral water can be produced from seawater, it is suitable for washing and cooking water, so it is extremely public for household use, but conventionally making soft mineral water from seawater is absolutely unknown.
It is not done.
Also, if soft water mineral water can be produced from seawater, it is suitable for household use because it is suitable for washing and cooking water, but conventionally making soft water mineral drinking water from seawater is absolutely unknown.

JP2010-221147

Among the inventions, the invention according to claim 1 is small and inexpensive like a general household refrigerator capable of producing a large amount of mineral water suitable for beverages from seawater contaminated with radioactive substances and bacteria. It aims at providing a drinking water manufacturing device.

In addition to the above object, the invention according to claim 2 is a mineral drink with peace of mind in the house even if the device is placed near the sea by automatically repeating operation / stop when the power is turned on. It aims at providing the drinking water manufacturing apparatus which can take out water.

In addition to the above object, the invention according to claim 3 is a drinking water production system that can take out drinking water in a cup or the like in the house and drink it without any trouble even when the device is placed away from the house. An object is to provide an apparatus.
Moreover, in addition to the said objective, invention of Claim 4 aims at providing the drinking water manufacturing apparatus which can manufacture soft mineral water from seawater.

In order to achieve the above object, the present inventor, as a result of diligent research, has passed the RO membrane concentrated water further through the RO membrane, so that the desired large amount of drinking water remains as a small RO membrane and a small pump. Was easily obtained, and the present invention was reached.

That is, the drinking water production apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention is a pre-filtration device for seawater, and a high-pressure pump for filtering the seawater filtered by the pre-filtration device to the first reverse osmosis membrane filtration device and filtering it at high pressure. And a second reverse osmosis membrane filtration device that filters the concentrated water of the first reverse osmosis membrane filtration device at a high pressure with the high-pressure pump, and purified water that has been desalted by filtration with both reverse osmosis membrane filtration devices, And a tank for storing mineral water through the mineral extraction container.

When the power is turned on, the high-pressure pump is activated, the device is in an operating state, and when the level meter (electrode) provided on the tank liquid level detects a predetermined water level, the high-pressure pump is stopped and the operation of the device is stopped. When the level drops to a predetermined water level, the level meter detects it and the high-pressure pump is automatically activated to start the operation of the device. The operation / stop can be repeated, and a fully automatic device can be obtained (claim 2).

Moreover, the drinking water manufacturing apparatus according to claim 3 is provided on a water outlet side of the pipe, a pipe for sending water in the tank to a water discharge port for drinking, a transfer pump connected to the pipe, A pressure switch and a drinking water outlet valve connected to the water discharge port; when the drinking water outlet valve is opened, the pressure switch detects a drop in pressure and the transfer pump automatically starts, The pressure rises when it flows out from the water discharge port and the drinking water outlet valve is closed, and the pressure switch detects this and the transfer pump automatically stops.

Moreover, since the mineral water that has been passed through the mineral extraction container is further passed through a container filled with a cation exchange resin, it can be changed from hard water to soft mineral water, so that it is suitable for home use. ).

The drinking water production apparatus main body is provided with a priming device, and the pipe between the raw water suction port and the priming device is configured to flow water from the priming device so as to suck in the raw water. It is preferable that raw water can be sucked in without any trouble even when the distance (5 to 6 m) or more is low. It is preferable to provide a germicidal lamp that irradiates the liquid level of the tank in order to prevent germs from growing in the water stored in the tank.

It is preferable to provide a pressure regulating valve that controls the pressure of the high-pressure pump to a predetermined value by controlling the discharge amount of the concentrated water behind the second reverse osmosis membrane filtration device that filters the concentrated water ( Claim 7).
It is preferable to provide a differential pressure alarm device that measures a differential pressure between the inlet and outlet of the pre-filtering device and issues a replacement alarm when the pressure exceeds a predetermined value (Claim 8).

As described above, according to the invention described in claim 1 of the present invention, a large amount of mineral water suitable for a delicious beverage is produced from seawater by an inexpensive and unprecedented ultra-small drinking water production apparatus. be able to. This has been strongly demanded globally for a long time, but since it was the first in the world to succeed, it has a tremendous effect of being able to solve the global water shortage at once.

The cause of the effect of the present invention is that even if two reverse osmosis membrane filtration devices are arranged in parallel, if the same small pump is used, the amount of water does not increase, so purified water cannot be obtained so much, but concentrated water is not used. By filtering with the second reverse osmosis membrane filtration device, approximately twice as much purified water was obtained with a small pump having the same flow rate. By doing so, a large amount of purified water can be obtained by using a small pump and a small reverse osmosis membrane filtration device, so that the device has been remarkably miniaturized.

Conventionally, the concentrated water of seawater has not been filtered with a reverse osmosis membrane filtration device, but this is because it was thought that a large pump was required because the salt concentration increased. However, in practice, at least once the concentrated water is filtered, a small high-pressure pump can be used without any trouble.

Further, according to the invention described in claim 2, when the power is turned on, the operation is automatically repeated, so that the device can be made fully automatic, and the device can be placed near the sea and placed in the house. In addition to being able to take out drinking water without hindrance, the tank can always be filled with the required amount of mineral water, so the required amount of mineral water can be reliably produced.

Further, according to the invention described in claim 3, in addition to the above-mentioned effect, the drinking water production apparatus main body is placed near the sea, and the drinking water produced without any trouble in the house is taken out into a cup or the like for drinking. Can do.
Although it is possible to attach a faucet to the tank to remove drinking water, it is not possible to place the device near the sea and remove drinking water in the house.

Moreover, according to the invention of claim 4, in addition to the above effects, mineral water softened from seawater can be obtained, so that it can be suitably used for washing and cooking, so it is extremely suitable for household use. Yes.

It is explanatory drawing of the drinking water manufacturing apparatus of this invention. It is a perspective view of the drinking water manufacturing apparatus of the present invention. It is a perspective view of the state which opened the front door of FIG.

1 ··· Seawater inlet 2 ··· Primer 3 ······ Post filter (pre-filter device)
4 .... 25 micron filter (pre-filtration device)
5 .... Differential pressure alarm 7 ... High pressure pump 8 ... First reverse osmosis membrane (RO membrane) filtration device 9 ... Second reverse Osmosis membrane (RO membrane) filtration device 11 ... Pressure regulating valve 12 ... Pressure indicator 13 ... Mineral extraction container 14 ... Water softening container 15 ... Level meter (electrode)
16 ... Sterilization lamp 17 ... Mineral water storage tank 19 ... Transfer pump 20 ... Drinking water outlet valve 26 ... Control device 29 ... Water outlet

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of a drinking water production apparatus according to the present invention. Seawater sucked from a seawater inlet 1 is a post filter (pre-filter device) 3 for removing coarse dust and a 25 micron filter for removing minute dust. (Pre-filter device) 4 is filtered to remove insoluble matters.

If the raw water suction port 1 is lowered by 5 to 6 m or more from the main body of the apparatus, the suction capacity of the high pressure pump 7 is lost, so water is supplied from the priming device 2 into the pipe 10, and the pipe 10 is filled with water. It makes it easy to inhale seawater.

A differential pressure alarm 5 is provided to measure the differential pressure between the inlet of the post filter 3 and the outlet of the 25 micron filter 4 and to issue a replacement alarm informing that the filter is clogged when this exceeds a predetermined value. It has been. The operation is controlled by the control device 26.

The seawater filtered by the prefiltration devices 3 and 4 is sent to the high pressure pump 7, and is filtered by the first stage reverse osmosis membrane filtration device 8 with a high pressure of 5.5 MPa by the high pressure pump 7. The reverse osmosis membrane filtration device 8 removes all impurities such as radioactive substances, bacteria, organic substances, and inorganic substances. The high-pressure pump used in the present invention is a known small high-pressure pump that is driven by a small amount of electric power.

When the pressure of the high-pressure pump 7 becomes as high as 5.5 MPa or more, the pressure is automatically released from the safety valve 6. Therefore, it can be used with peace of mind in ordinary households.
In order to maintain the internal pressure of the first reverse osmosis membrane filtration device 8 and the second reverse osmosis membrane filtration device 9 at 5.5 MPa, the concentrated water is discharged manually by the pressure adjustment valve 11 while looking at the pressure indicator 12. By controlling the amount, the pressure of the high-pressure pump 7 is controlled to a predetermined value (5.5 Mpa).

The water filtered by the first-stage reverse osmosis membrane filtration device 8 passes through the mineral extraction container 13 to become mineral water, is filtered by the 25 micron filter 14 and flows into the mineral storage tank 17. A check valve 27 prevents mineral water from flowing into the reverse osmosis membrane filtration devices 8 and 9.
The mineral extraction container is filled with a material for extracting 70 items of minerals such as calcium and magnesium, and activated carbon in the upper layer.

The concentrated water that has not passed through the first-stage reverse osmosis membrane filtration device 8 is filtered by the second-stage reverse osmosis membrane filtration device 9 and together with the purified water filtered by the first-stage reverse osmosis membrane filtration device 8. Then, it passes through the mineral extraction container 13 and the water softening container 14 and flows into the mineral storage tank 17.
The pure water that has passed through the reverse osmosis membrane filtration devices 8 and 9 does not contain impurities, so it is said to be bad for the human body. However, this problem can be solved by passing the mineral storage tank 17 into the mineral water. Solved.

The water softening container 14 is filled with a cation exchange resin. When mineral water passes through the water softening vessel filled with the cation exchange resin, the mineral water changes from mineral water to soft mineral water.

The concentrated water that has not passed through the second-stage reverse osmosis membrane filtration device 9 is discharged from the drain nozzle 24 by opening the pressure regulating valve 11. Incidentally, reference numeral 23 denotes a check valve which prevents the concentrated water from flowing into the tank 17 by mistake.

When the household 100V power supply is turned on, the high-pressure pump 7 is driven and the operation of the apparatus is started.
The mineral storage tank 17 is provided with a level meter (electrode) 15. When the level meter 15 detects that the tank is full (predetermined water level), the high-pressure pump 7 is automatically stopped and the operation of the apparatus is stopped. . When the water level falls to a predetermined position, this is detected by the level meter 15, the high-pressure pump 7 is automatically started, and the operation of the apparatus is resumed. This operation / stop is repeated as long as the power is on. The operation is controlled by the control device 26. Thus, since the device of the present invention can be fully automatic, the device can be placed near the sea and drink mineral water in the house with confidence.

A germicidal lamp 16 is provided at the upper end of the mineral storage tank 17 so that germs do not propagate even if left for about one day.
A storage tank drain valve 22 is provided at the lower end of the mineral storage tank 17, and when the water in the tank 17 is discarded, it is opened and discharged from the drain nozzle 24.

A transfer pump 19 is connected to the pipe 28 for sending water in the tank 17 to the container 21 and the like via a storage tank outlet valve 18, and a mineral water discharge valve 20 and an inverted U-shaped water discharge are connected to the tip of the pipe 28. An outlet 29 is connected. When the mineral water take-off valve 20 is opened, the pressure decreases, and a pressure switch (not shown) provided on the water outlet side of the transfer pump 19 detects this, and the transfer pump 19 is automatically activated, and from the water discharge port 29. Water flows out. When the drinking water outlet valve 20 is closed, the pressure increases, so the pressure switch detects this and the transfer pump 19 automatically stops.
Therefore, even if the apparatus of the present invention is placed near the sea, if the mineral water outlet valve 20 and the water outlet 29 connected to the hose are held in the house, the mineral water outlet valve 20 can be opened to discharge the water. Mineral water can be taken out from the outlet 29.

In the figure, 25 is a power supply terminal, which is a household 100V power supply. In the present invention, the power source is not particularly limited, but since the apparatus of the present invention uses a known high-pressure pump that requires less power, natural energy such as sunlight and wind power can be used without any problem.

In the said Example, although the reverse osmosis membrane filtration apparatus was connected in 2 steps | paragraphs, when to-be-processed water is other than seawater, it connects with 3 steps | paragraphs and 4 steps | paragraphs, and the quantity of the drinking water to manufacture can be increased further. it can. However, when the raw water is seawater, increasing the number of stages to 3 or 4 increases the salinity of the concentrated water and requires a large pump.

In the above embodiment, the pipes connected to the reverse osmosis membrane filtration devices 8 and 9 are all made of stainless steel. This is in order to withstand the high pressure of 5.5 Mpa by the high pressure pump.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 3 shows a state in which the front door is opened.
As is apparent from FIG. 2, the device of the present invention has a height of 1.2 m, a width of 50 cm, a depth of 50 cm, and a height of 90 cm to the container mounting portion for taking out drinking water. From this, it can be seen that the device has been remarkably miniaturized compared to this type of conventional device.

The drinking water outlet valve 20 and the water outlet 29 are formed so that they can be removed together. Therefore, if the apparatus main body is placed near the sea, the apparatus main body, the drinking water outlet valve 20 and the discharge port 29 are connected by a hose, and the drinking water outlet valve 20 and the outlet 29 are held in the house. In the house, drinking water can be easily taken out into a cup or the like.

The material of the housing of the device of the present invention shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 is formed of a material having a soundproof function.
The apparatus of the present invention can be applied not only to seawater but also to any contaminated water such as lake water, river water and tap water contaminated with radioactive substances, bacteria, organic matter, inorganic matter, etc. can do. When the water to be treated is lake water, river water or tap water, mineral water of about 4 tons, which is twice as much as seawater, can be obtained.

With the worldwide shortage of water, the household mineral water production apparatus of the present invention can use household 100V power, natural energy, and other power, and is extremely inexpensive, unprecedented. Therefore, it is expected that the contaminated water will be widely used worldwide in households in areas suffering from water shortages.

Claims (8)

A pre-filtration device for seawater, a high-pressure pump for sending the seawater filtered by the pre-filtration device to the first reverse osmosis membrane filtration device and filtering at high pressure, and the concentrated water of the first reverse osmosis membrane filtration device, A second reverse osmosis membrane filtration device that filters at a high pressure with a high-pressure pump, and a tank that stores purified water filtered and desalted by both reverse osmosis membrane filtration devices through a mineral extraction container and stored as mineral water. A drinking water production apparatus characterized by: When the power is turned on, the high-pressure pump is activated, the device is in operation, and when the level meter provided on the tank liquid level detects a predetermined water level, the high-pressure pump stops and the operation of the device stops, and the liquid level reaches the predetermined level. The drinking water production apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the level meter detects the water level when the water level falls to the water level, and the high pressure pump is automatically activated to start the operation of the apparatus. A pipe for sending water in the tank to a water outlet for drinking, a transfer pump connected to the pipe, a pressure switch provided on the water outlet side of the transfer pump, and a drinking water outlet connecting the water outlet And when the drinking water take-off valve is opened, the pressure switch detects the pressure drop, the transfer pump is automatically activated, mineral water flows out from the water discharge port, and the drinking water take-off valve is The drinking water production apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the pressure rises when closed and the pressure switch detects the pressure and the transfer pump automatically stops. The drinking water production apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the mineral water that has passed through the mineral extraction container is further passed through a container filled with a cation exchange resin, whereby the mineral water is changed from hard water to soft water. . The drinking water production apparatus main body is provided with a priming device, and the pipe between the raw water suction port and the priming device is configured to flow water from the priming device so as to suck in the raw water. The drinking water production apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein raw water can be sucked even when the distance is lower than a distance. The drinking water production apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising a germicidal lamp that irradiates the surface of the tank so as to prevent germs from growing in the water stored in the tank. A pressure regulating valve for controlling the pressure of the high-pressure pump to a predetermined value by controlling a discharge amount of the concentrated water is provided behind the second reverse osmosis membrane filtration device that filters the concentrated water. The drinking water production apparatus according to any one of 6. The drinking water production apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7, further comprising a differential pressure alarm device that measures a differential pressure between an inlet and an outlet of the prefiltration device and issues a replacement alarm when the differential pressure exceeds a predetermined value. apparatus.

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