Ballast water treatment apparatus using brain impulse

Abstract

The present invention relates to a ballast water treatment apparatus using a brain impulse, in which an underwater plasma pressure wave supply nozzle is installed in a ship to allow the ship, when entering port, to drive the apparatus in a ballast water discharge section, thereby killing fish, shellfish, aquatic organisms, and microorganisms living in the ballast water loaded at the port of departure, and preventing the marine ecosystem of a destination from being contaminated by the ballast water being discarded at the destination.

Description

Ship ballast water treatment device using brain impulses

[0001] The present invention relates to a ship ballast water treatment device, and more particularly, to a ship ballast water treatment device using a brain impulse, which installs an underwater plasma pressure wave supply nozzle on a ship and operates the device in a section where an entering ship discharges ship ballast water, thereby killing fish, aquatic organisms, and microorganisms living in the ship ballast water loaded at a port of departure, thereby preventing the marine ecosystem of the destination from being disturbed by the ship ballast water discharged at the destination.

[0002] Ballast water is seawater carried in a ship's tanks to maintain balance and achieve optimal speed and efficiency when the ship is operating.

[0003] Ballast water is injected into the port or nearby waters where cargo is unloaded from the ship or passengers disembark, and is discharged again at the destination when cargo is loaded or passengers board.

[0004] These ballast waters contain various types of marine life, microorganisms, and pollutants that were living in the injected area, and they are transported long distances by the ship's operation and are discharged in other areas or third countries, which can disrupt the ecosystem of the area where they were discharged or cause the spread of pollutants.

[0005] To prevent ocean pollution by ballast water, ship ballast water treatment is regulated by a convention drafted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

[0006] The International Maritime Organization introduced the 'Ship Ballast Water Regulations' in 2004, making it mandatory to install a device to kill marine life in ships' ballast water. Starting in 2009, existing and new ships with a tank capacity of 5,000㎥ or less must enter port by exchanging ballast water on the high seas or install a purification device. By 2024, purification devices must be installed on all ships.

[0007] When looking at the types and pros and cons of ship ballast water treatment technology, ballast water has various characteristics such as sediment, biological species, degree of contamination, seawater, freshwater, brackish water (areas with low salinity water where seawater and freshwater are mixed, blackish water) depending on the inflow condition, and it becomes an unpredictable state due to corrosion of ballast water tanks, sediment, heat source, and sunlight, so when selecting a treatment method, characteristics such as sterilization requirement, residual contact time, holding time, corrosion, and temperature must be considered.

[0008] There are several existing methods for treating ship ballast water, but as shown in Table 1, they have many shortcomings, such as excessive equipment costs, increased maintenance costs, management difficulties, concerns about secondary environmental problems, and technical defects. Therefore, improved technologies are needed.

[0009] Accordingly, various equilibrium water treatment technologies are being developed, examples of which include patent documents 1 to 4.

[0010] Patent Document 1 relates to an ultraviolet sterilization lamp automatic cleaning type ballast water treatment device, which is connected to an intake pipe that guides the inflow of seawater connected to a ballast tank of a ship and has an ultraviolet sterilization device that sterilizes marine organisms and pollutants contained in seawater using ultraviolet rays, wherein the ultraviolet sterilization device comprises: a guide pipe having an empty interior and an outlet formed respectively to receive and discharge seawater connected to the intake pipe; an ultraviolet lamp that is installed longitudinally inside the guide pipe and is powered from the outside; a lamp brush that is provided to surround the outer surface of the ultraviolet lamp on one side and moves back and forth by a driving unit to remove scale formed on the outer surface of the ultraviolet lamp; and an intake pipe that includes a filter device that filters marine organisms and pollutants contained in seawater and transfers them to the guide pipe, wherein the filter device is an element that is connected to the intake pipe to supply seawater and has a guide cover formed with a plurality of inlets through which seawater is introduced, and is provided to be inserted and accommodated inside the guide cover, and filters marine organisms and pollutants mixed in seawater passing through the inlet and removes them. It is an automatic ship ballast water treatment device with an ultraviolet sterilizing lamp that further includes a filter unit that passes through it.

[0011] Patent Document 2 comprises a flow rate control step for controlling the flow rate of seawater flowing into a ship; a primary pollutant removal step for applying a vortex to the seawater and removing biological pollutants contained in the seawater by the vortex; a membrane filter step for filtering pollutants according to particle size using one or more filtration filters; a secondary pollutant removal step for removing biological pollutants remaining in the seawater by passing the seawater that has gone through the primary pollutant removal step through a multi-layer filter formed in multiple layers; a sensor control step for measuring the particle size of pollutants contained in the seawater, and controlling the seawater to go through the secondary pollutant removal step again if the measured particle size exceeds a standard value, and to inject the seawater into a ballast water storage tank if the measured particle size does not exceed the standard value; And a ballast water storage step of filling the ballast water storage tank of a ship with seawater that has passed the sensor control step, and each layer of the multi-layer filter is filled with gravel or sand of different particle sizes as a filtering means, and the average particle size of the gravel or sand filled in each layer is sequentially reduced, which is a method for preventing the inflow of foreign biological pollutants through ballast water of a ship.

[0012] Patent Document 3 relates to a ship ballast water treatment system capable of preventing contamination online, which includes a ballast water main pipe, a ballast water branch pipe, a filter located in the ballast water main pipe, and an electrolysis unit located in the ballast water branch pipe, and a part of seawater from the ship ballast water treatment system is introduced and filtered by a filter before being introduced into the ballast water branch pipe and the electrolysis unit, and seawater that has undergone electrolysis in the electrolysis unit is reinjected into the ballast water main pipe through the ballast water branch pipe, wherein the ship ballast water treatment system further includes a drug injection pipe and a drug injection pump located in the drug injection pipe, and a part of seawater that has undergone electrolysis in the electrolysis unit is reinjected into the filter through the drug injection pump and the drug injection pipe after the ballasting process is completed, and is maintained in the filter for a certain period of time, and a hydrogen desorption tank is installed downstream of the electrolysis unit in the ballast water branch pipe, and seawater that has undergone electrolysis in the electrolysis unit is desorbed of hydrogen through the hydrogen desorption tank and then another drug is injected. It is an online ship ballast water treatment system that can prevent pollution, in which the ballast water is injected into the main ballast water pipe under the action of a pump, a spray head is installed in the upper center of the hydrogen desorption tank, a turbulence module is installed in the middle and lower parts of the hydrogen desorption tank, a drug injection pipe is installed between the ballast water main pipe and the waste discharge port of the filter, and the connection point of the ballast water main pipe and the drug injection pipe is located downstream of the connection point of the ballast water branch pipe and the ballast water main pipe.

[0013] Patent Document 4 is a method for treating ballast water of a ship using a photocatalytic complex, which comprises mixing a photocatalytic complex of titanium dioxide and tungsten oxide into the ballast water of a ship and irradiating the ballast water mixed with the photocatalytic complex with ultraviolet rays to sterilize the ballast water of the ship.

[0014] In this way, various equilibrium water treatment technologies have been developed.

[0015] That is, conventional ballast water treatment technologies mainly use technologies such as electrolysis, ozone sterilization, filtration and ultraviolet treatment, and high-voltage pulse discharge. Electrolysis technology uses a membrane filter to treat microorganisms larger than a certain size, and then removes small microorganisms using sodium hypochlorite generated through an electrolysis device. This method consumes little electricity and can sterilize microorganisms regardless of the turbidity of seawater. However, it requires a step to neutralize chlorine when releasing ballast water back into the sea, and there are always risks such as explosions due to the generation of hydrogen and oxygen from even a slight spark at the electrodes, and there are concerns about corrosion of the electrode plates and hull, and the equipment cost is high.

[0016] In addition, the ozone sterilization method has the advantage of being able to remove marine organisms without using a membrane filter based on the strong oxidizing power of ozone by converting oxygen in the atmosphere into highly active ozone gas, but it requires a variety of auxiliary devices for ozone generation, so the equipment cost is excessive, and there are concerns about secondary environmental problems caused by the generation of disinfection byproducts by reacting with bromine, ions, etc. in seawater. In addition, the technology using filtration and ultraviolet rays has the advantage of not emitting pollutants by first treating marine organisms with a physical method such as a membrane filter and then removing marine organisms with a mechanical method such as ultraviolet rays. However, it has the disadvantage of incurring membrane contamination and membrane replacement costs, the efficiency decreases as the seawater becomes more turbid, the electricity consumption is high, and the treatment effect is not sustainable because organisms can mutate or survive.

[0017] In addition, high-voltage pulse discharge technology generates plasma shock waves inside seawater to remove marine life, and has the advantage of being environmentally friendly as it does not require the injection of chemicals, but only basic research on removing microorganisms in seawater has been described, making it difficult to commercialize the product, and it has the disadvantage of being insufficient for large-scale treatment of ship ballast water.

[0018] The present invention was developed to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, and the purpose of the present invention is to provide a ship ballast water treatment device using a brain impulse that can protect the equipment of the treatment device even in an ocean environment where the ship is operating for a long period of time and can satisfy the electrical operation even in sudden situations and extreme temperature changes that exceed the operating conditions.

[0019] In addition, the present invention aims to provide a ship ballast water treatment device using a brain impulse that effectively kills unwanted organisms in ballast water so that fish, shellfish, and aquatic organisms and microorganisms mixed in ballast water do not cause environmental problems, and is capable of treating large-capacity ship ballast water, and is easy to maintain and economical.

[0020] In order to solve the above-described object, the present invention provides a ballast water treatment device for a ship using a brain impulse, comprising: a ballast water discharge pipe for discharging ballast water stored inside a ballast water tank of a ship; a compressed air supply pipe for supplying compressed air to the ballast water discharged through the ballast water discharge pipe; a supply nozzle installed at a discharge end of the compressed air supply pipe; and a plasma generator for supplying a pressure wave to the compressed air supplied to the compressed air supply pipe, so that when the compressed air is supplied and a high-frequency high voltage is applied and sent into the water, the air is electrically stimulated and an air pocket is created in the water, and when the plasma is supplied into the air pocket, a brain impulse waveform and a ring wave vibration waveform are continuously applied, thereby causing a breakdown of air insulation and a powerful explosion to generate a pressure wave in the water, thereby sterilizing or carbonizing fish, shellfish, aquatic organisms, and microorganisms.

[0021] It is preferable that the above compressed air supply pipe be composed of a conductive pipe.

[0022] It is preferable that an electrical insulating layer be further installed on the outer surface of the above conductive pipe.

[0023] The above-mentioned electrical insulation layer is preferably made of a Teflon layer coated on the outside of the conductive pipe, and a flame-retardant rubber and vinyl resin laminated on the outside of the Teflon layer at least in the part passing through the inside of the ballast water discharge pipe.

[0024] It is preferable that the above plasma generator be fixedly installed in the middle of the compressed air supply pipe by a fixing means made of ceramic.

[0025] The ship ballast water treatment device using a brain impulse according to the present invention has the effect of preventing environmental pollution by killing fish, shellfish, aquatic organisms, and microorganisms living in the ship ballast water by installing an underwater plasma pressure wave supply nozzle to generate an underwater explosive pressure wave at the level of lightning.

[0026] In particular, the present invention is a low-cost, high-efficiency device that enables commercialization of the product, thereby conserving the marine ecosystem and ensuring the safety of ships, and has economic effects due to ease of maintenance.

[0027] Figure 1 is a configuration diagram of a ship ballast water treatment device using brain impulses according to the present invention.

[0028] Figure 2 is a drawing of a nozzle constituting a ship ballast water treatment device using brain impulse according to the present invention.

[0029] Figure 3 is a photograph of an experimental example of a ship ballast water treatment device using brain impulses according to the present invention.

[0030] Figure 4 is a waveform diagram of a brain impulse of a ship ballast water treatment device using a brain impulse according to the present invention.

[0031] Figure 5 is a ring wave waveform diagram of a ship ballast water treatment device using brain impulse according to the present invention.

[0032] The present invention can be practiced with various modifications. Specific embodiments are illustrated in the drawings and described in detail. However, this is not intended to limit the invention to specific embodiments, but rather to encompass all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and technical scope of the present invention.

[0033] In describing each drawing, similar reference numerals are used to designate similar components. In describing the present invention, detailed descriptions of related known technologies are omitted if they are deemed to obscure the gist of the present invention.

[0034]

[0035] The present invention can prevent the marine ecosystem of a destination from being disturbed by ship ballast water that is discarded at the destination by killing fish, shellfish, aquatic organisms, and microorganisms living in the ship ballast water.

[0036] The ship ballast water treatment device using a brain impulse according to the present invention is configured, as shown in FIG. 1, to include: a ballast water discharge pipe (10) for discharging ballast water stored inside a ballast water tank of a ship; a compressed air supply pipe (20) for supplying compressed air to the ballast water discharged through the ballast water discharge pipe; a supply nozzle (30) installed at the discharge end of the compressed air supply pipe; and a plasma generator (40) for supplying a pressure wave to the compressed air supplied through the compressed air supply pipe.

[0037] The ballast water treatment device of the present invention configured as described above applies high-frequency, high-voltage to compressed air supplied through a compressed air supply pipe and sends it underwater, so that the compressed air is electrically stimulated and creates air pockets underwater, and when plasma generated from a plasma generator is supplied into the air pockets, a thunder impulse waveform and a ring wave vibration waveform are successively applied, thereby destroying air insulation and generating a powerful explosion and underwater pressure wave, thereby sterilizing or carbonizing fish, shellfish, aquatic organisms, and microorganisms.

[0038] That is, as illustrated in Fig. 1, the equilibrium water flowing into the inlet of the equilibrium water discharge pipe and discharged through the discharge port passes through the supply nozzle (30) installed at the discharge end of the compressed air supply pipe and, in this process, causes a powerful explosion and an underwater pressure wave simultaneously with the destruction of air insulation, thereby sterilizing or carbonizing fish, shellfish, aquatic organisms, and microorganisms.

[0039] The above-mentioned compressed air supply pipe (20) is a pipe structure made of a conductive material that can conduct electricity and is connected to a high-frequency, high-voltage pipe with an internal diameter of about 5ø, through which compressed air passes.

[0040] The above supply nozzle (30) has the function of discharging the ballast water passing through the ballast water discharge pipe at high pressure underwater to process it at a high flow rate.

[0041]

[0042] The above plasma generator (40) is driven by the main power of electric energy, and generates a 6 kV brain impulse (see Fig. 4), and a vibration shock wave of 3 kV ring wave (see Fig. 5) as a secondary shock energy is supplied to the equilibrium water, and this is supplied and operated repeatedly.

[0043] The electrical specifications of the brain impulse, which is the main power of the above plasma generator, are as follows: the voltage condition is that the maximum voltage is 6 kV (6,000 V), and the rising time from the starting point of applying this voltage, 0 kV, to the mid-region, 3 kV, must be performed within 1 μsec, the time to reach the maximum, 6 kV, must be reached within 1.5 μsec, and the time to fall back to 3 kV must be maintained for 50 μsec.

[0044] The secondary impact energy has an oscillatory waveform, with a peak voltage of 3 kV, a voltage rise time of 1 μsec, and a damped oscillation frequency of 100 kHz. At this time, when generating a ship's ballast water underwater pressure wave, the specific resistance value is usually 0.5 Ω due to the influence of the sodium (Na) specific gravity of the seawater inside the device, and the current wave is 3 kV. The frequency of the energy used to create the pressure wave is a high frequency of 13.56 MHz, ensuring the stability and efficiency of various electric energy devices.

[0045] In addition, for efficient operation of high-frequency, high-voltage power energy, the steel case is electrically grounded, and it is composed of multiple units supplying lightning impulses and multiple other units supplying ring waves. However, considering the standby time for power generation, three units are operated in parallel to enable time-staggered operation and automatic defensive operation.

[0046] The above plasma generator receives electricity from the outside through a connection terminal (41), and is fixedly installed in the middle of a compressed air supply pipe by a fixing means (40f) made of ceramic material to prevent leakage of high-frequency, high-voltage current.

[0047] As mentioned above, ship ballast water requires special electric energy to destroy fish, shellfish, aquatic organisms, and microorganisms by applying pressure waves to the water as it passes through the pipeline at a very high speed and in large quantities continuously. The energy used for this purpose is special electricity, and the instantaneous power of the voltage waveform is at the level of lightning. In order to use this energy, special insulation and usage conditions must be satisfied. This level of electricity can be called a lightning impulse or shock voltage, and if the energy used is not managed properly, it can cause damage to people and equipment.

[0048] Accordingly, the compressed air supply pipe (20) is composed of a conductive pipe (21), and an electrical insulating layer (22) is additionally installed on the outer surface of the conductive pipe (21).

[0049] The above-mentioned electrical insulation layer (22) can be implemented in various modified forms, but is preferably composed of a Teflon layer (22t) coated on the outside of the conductive pipe, and a flame-retardant rubber (22r) and vinyl resin (22v) laminated on the outside of the Teflon layer at least in the part passing through the inside of the equilibrium water discharge pipe.

[0050] The results of the experiment using the plasma generator constituting the ship ballast water treatment device using the brain impulse of the present invention configured as described above confirmed that all zooplankton were killed after plasma treatment, as shown in Fig. 3.

Claims

1. A ballast water discharge pipe (10) for discharging ballast water stored inside a ship's ballast water tank; A compressed air supply pipe (20) that supplies compressed air to the equilibrium water discharged through the above equilibrium water discharge pipe; A supply nozzle (30) installed at the discharge end of the compressed air supply pipe; A ship ballast water treatment device using a brain impulse, characterized in that it comprises a plasma generator (40) that supplies a pressure wave to compressed air supplied through the compressed air supply pipe, supplies compressed air and applies high-frequency, high-voltage to send it underwater, so that the air is electrically stimulated and an air pocket is created underwater, and when plasma is supplied into the air pocket, a brain impulse waveform and a ring wave vibration waveform are continuously applied, so that an underwater pressure wave is generated by a powerful explosion at the same time as the destruction of air insulation, thereby sterilizing or carbonizing fish and shellfish, aquatic organisms, and microorganisms.

2. In paragraph 1, A ship ballast water treatment device using brain impulses, characterized in that the compressed air supply pipe (20) is composed of a conductive pipe (21).

3. In paragraph 2, A ship ballast water treatment device using brain impulses, characterized in that an electrical insulating layer (22) is further installed on the outer surface of the conductive pipe (21).

4. In paragraph 3, A ship ballast water treatment device using a brain impulse, characterized in that the electrical insulation layer (22) is made of a Teflon layer (22t) coated on the outside of a conductive pipe, and a flame retardant rubber (22r) and vinyl resin (22v) laminated on the outside of the Teflon layer at least in the part passing through the inside of a ballast water discharge pipe.

5. In paragraph 1, A ship ballast water treatment device using brain impulses, characterized in that the plasma generator (40) is fixedly installed in the middle of a compressed air supply pipe by a fixing means (40f) made of ceramic.

Images