Modular Water Flotation Installation with Perpendicular Flow
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing water treatment flotation installations face challenges with non-uniform air bubble distribution, complexity in design, difficulty in transportation, and lack of modularity, which affect treatment efficiency and portability.
Innovation Solution
A modular flotation installation design where the contact tank is positioned along the flotation tank, allowing for a common contact zone across all modules, and featuring a perpendicular water flow configuration to enhance bubble distribution and treatment efficiency. The installation is compact and transportable in standard containers for maritime transport.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If the contact tank is positioned at one end of the flotation tank, then the air microbubble injection is simplified, but the air bubble distribution becomes non-uniform creating a gradient that leads to inhomogeneous treatment
Solution Approach 1:
The contact tank is divided into multiple sections with separate air injection zones, allowing uniform distribution of air microbubbles throughout the flotation tank. This segmentation of the air injection system ensures that bubbles are introduced at multiple locations rather than from a single point, eliminating the gradient effect and achieving homogeneous treatment of water.
Solution Approach 2:
The air injection system is arranged in a distributed three-dimensional configuration throughout the contact tank, rather than concentrated at one end. This spatial redistribution of injection points in multiple dimensions ensures uniform bubble distribution across the entire flotation tank volume, achieving homogeneous treatment.
2Productivity
If the installation is designed with fixed dimensions for optimal treatment, then treatment efficiency is maximized, but transportation becomes difficult particularly by container
Solution Approach 1:
The flotation installation is divided into modular units that can be independently transported and assembled. Each module contains a portion of the contact tank and flotation tank, allowing the system to be disassembled for container transport and reassembled at the deployment location to achieve the optimal treatment configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The installation design allows for flexible configuration where modules can be arranged in different arrangements depending on treatment requirements. The system can be adapted from a compact transport configuration to an expanded operational configuration, providing both ease of transport and optimal treatment efficiency when deployed.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the installation is made modular with multiple modules, then treatment capacity can be adjusted, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Each modular unit is designed as a universal building block that can function independently or be combined with other identical modules. The standardized interface and uniform design of each module allow for flexible configuration to match different treatment capacities without requiring complex custom designs, simplifying the overall system architecture despite the modular nature.
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 modular design allows for flexible treatment capacities, improved air bubble distribution leading to enhanced treatment efficiency, and the ability to transport the installation easily, addressing the limitations of previous systems.
Implementation Method 1
injection of pressurized water allowing the microbubbles and the flocculated water to come into contact
Implementation Method 2
induced flotation, where the density of the suspended matter is initially greater than that of the water that contains it and is artificially reduced using gas bubbles
Implementation Method 3
flotation treatment achieves better removal of algae, as well as oils and greases compared to settling treatment
Implementation Method 4
the difference in density between the suspended matter and the water that contains it is naturally sufficient to allow their separation (the matter floats on the surface of the water)
Implementation Method 5
injection of pressurized water allowing the microbubbles and the flocculated water to come into contact
Implementation Method 6
coagulation to neutralize the surface charges of the colloids
Implementation Method 7
flocculation, using a flocculating polymer material allowing the agglomeration of the particles
Data Source
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AI summary
Installation for treating water by flotation, comprising a substantially parallelepipedal assembly (1) produced by connecting modules (2, 2a), said assembly comprising a contact tank (3) which is provided with supply means for water to be treated (4) and supply means for white water (5), a flotation tank (6) which is provided with means for discharging treated water (7, 7a) and which is separated from said contact tank by a vertical wall (8) and means for discharging floating sludge, characterised in that said contact tank (3) is provided along said flotation tank (6) and delimits a single contact zone for said water to be treated with said white water, and in that said supply means for water to be treated (4) are configured to distribute the water to be treated in said contact tank according to a longitudinal water supply flow, the water distribution flow in the flotation tank being perpendicular to said water supply flow in said contact tank.