Flexible Biomass Support Panels for Wastewater Treatment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing biomass support members in wastewater treatment systems lack sufficient flexibility and hydraulic openness, leading to inefficient biomass attachment, retention, and oxygen delivery, which affects treatment efficiency and sludge production.
Innovation Solution
The development of elongated flexible biomass support members with open-structure yarns that are crowded together to achieve specific thickness, light transmission, water absorption, and biomass attachment properties, featuring cross-supports that allow for swaying in response to liquid and gas currents, enhancing hydraulic openness and biomass retention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If biomass support members are made with traditional rigid structures, then structural stability is maintained, but flexibility and hydraulic openness are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The support member incorporates yarns with intervals of freedom that allow dynamic movement and swaying in response to liquid and gas currents. This dynamic capability enables the structure to adapt to flow conditions while maintaining overall structural integrity through the anchored portions.
Solution Approach 2:
The support member is divided into segments of yarns with alternating regions of anchoring and freedom. This segmentation allows different portions to serve different functions: anchored regions provide structural stability while free regions provide flexibility and hydraulic openness.
2Quantity of substance
If yarns are densely packed to increase biomass attachment capacity, then attachment weight capacity improves, but hydraulic openness deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The support member structure segments the yarn arrangement into crowded regions for biomass attachment and spaced regions for hydraulic flow. This segmentation allows simultaneous optimization of both biomass attachment capacity and hydraulic openness.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the support member have different local qualities: some areas have densely packed yarns for high biomass attachment, while other areas have spaced yarns for hydraulic flow. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction between attachment capacity and hydraulic openness.
3Quantity of substance
If support members are made thick to increase biomass retention, then biomass retention improves, but water flow capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The support member uses segmented yarn arrangements with alternating dense and open regions. This segmentation allows the structure to retain biomass in dense regions while maintaining water flow capability through open regions.
Solution Approach 2:
The support member incorporates porous structures created by the spaced yarn arrangement and intervals of freedom. This porosity enables water to flow through the thick structure while biomass is retained in the denser regions.
4Strength
If yarns are fixed rigidly to maintain structural integrity, then structural integrity is maintained, but response to liquid and gas currents deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The support member incorporates dynamic elements in the form of yarns with intervals of freedom that can sway and move in response to liquid and gas currents. This dynamic response capability is maintained while structural integrity is preserved through the anchored portions.
Solution Approach 2:
The structure is segmented into rigidly anchored regions for structural integrity and freely moving regions for current response. This segmentation allows simultaneous achievement of both structural strength and adaptability to flowing media.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution improves biomass attachment and retention, reduces sludge production, and maintains a high level of biomass activity, enabling efficient wastewater treatment with reduced operational costs and space requirements.
Implementation Method 1
Wm, ratio of weight of water (W) absorbed per unit weight of member (m), in excess of 3.7
Implementation Method 2
hydraulically open in that water can flow from one face of the member, when laden with biomass, to biomass in the interior of the member
Data Source
AI summary
Biomass support members, including woven textile media, useful in biological contact processes and apparatus; biomass support panels of limited flexibility and substantial surface expanse, with or without frames, comprising a variety of different woven or non-woven biomass supporting members, which may or may not include the foregoing media; biological treatment processes using biomass supporting panels in any at least partly supported growth biological process, whether a wastewater treatment or not; and biological wastewater treatment apparatus comprising diffusers and biomass support panels that may or may not include the above media, and which may also include certain preferred spatial and operational relationships.