Modular Wastewater Reactor Layout for Variable Semiconductor Flows
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional wastewater treatment systems for electronics and semiconductor fabrication facilities are large, costly, and inflexible, with significant footprints, limited expandability, and reliance on gravity for flow, making it difficult to manage variable wastewater flows and expand capacity.
Innovation Solution
A compact, modular wastewater treatment system with reduced retention time, using buffer zones, variable speed circulation pumps, and eductor mixers to manage flow and pH, allowing for prefabricated modules to be shipped and easily expanded, and eliminating gravity dependence by using pumping systems for wastewater conveyance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional reactor tank assemblies are used to handle peak wastewater flows, then the system can manage high flow rates, but the footprint becomes excessively large (30 feet wide, 100 feet long, and 30 to 50 feet tall)
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides wastewater treatment into multiple parallel trains, each handling a portion of the total flow. This segmentation allows the facility to treat peak flows through multiple units operating simultaneously while maintaining a compact footprint, as each individual train is smaller than a single conventional reactor would require.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from horizontal expansion (large footprint reactors) to vertical stacking (multiple levels). By arranging reactor tanks vertically in stacked configurations, the system achieves the required treatment capacity without proportionally increasing the ground footprint, effectively utilizing the vertical dimension to resolve the space constraint.
2Ease of manufacture
If wastewater treatment systems are built on-site to accommodate large components, then the system can be installed, but production time and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The reactor tank assemblies and other system components are pre-assembled and pre-tested in controlled manufacturing environments before delivery to the wastewater facility. This preliminary assembly allows for quality control and efficiency gains, reducing on-site installation time and costs while ensuring proper functionality before deployment.
Solution Approach 2:
The system is divided into modular, pre-fabricated units that can be manufactured separately and transported to the site. This modular segmentation enables parallel manufacturing of multiple components, reducing overall production time compared to building a single large system on-site, while maintaining ease of installation through standardized interfaces.
3Productivity
If reactor tank assemblies operate at 100% capacity without flow equalization, then the system handles peak flows, but the system cannot accommodate variable flows efficiently
Solution Approach 1:
The system incorporates variable speed circulation pumps that can dynamically adjust their operation based on real-time wastewater flow conditions. During peak flows, pumps operate at higher speeds to maintain treatment effectiveness, while during lower flows, speeds are reduced to match demand, providing adaptability to variable flow conditions while maintaining peak flow handling capability.
Solution Approach 2:
Flow sensors and control systems continuously monitor wastewater flow rates and provide feedback to the circulation pumps and other system components. This feedback mechanism allows the system to automatically adjust its operation to match actual flow conditions, optimizing treatment efficiency across varying flow rates while maintaining the capacity to handle peak flows when they occur.
4Use of energy by moving object
If the system is designed to use gravity for wastewater conveyance, then energy consumption is reduced, but the system requires specific elevation arrangements and limits expandability
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs hydraulic pumps to convey wastewater between treatment stages and throughout the facility. These pumps provide controlled fluid movement that is not dependent on elevation differences, allowing the system to be configured flexibly across different site topographies and to be expanded to new locations without being constrained by gravity flow requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The circulation pumps serve multiple functions: they convey wastewater through the treatment system, provide mixing action within reactors, and enable flow redistribution between parallel trains. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate gravity flow arrangements while maintaining energy efficiency through optimized pump operation that can adapt to different system configurations and expansion scenarios.
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 system reduces footprint, lowers operational costs, and enhances flexibility by allowing for variable flow management and easy expansion, enabling efficient treatment and discharge of wastewater within regulatory pH limits.
Implementation Method 1
draws wastewater from a bottom portion of the reactor tank and discharging the wastewater through a distribution header disposed within the reactor tank in a manner to create waterflow pressure for mixing
Implementation Method 2
eductor mixers drawn from and discharged by the circulation pump assembly
Data Source
AI summary
A system for treating wastewater from electronics and semiconductor companies that has at least one reactor tank assembly and at least one wastewater conveyance kit of inflow, outflow, and return flow pipe, valve, and pump assemblies. The at least one reactor tank assembly is interchangeably operable at least one or more of singly, as a series of reactor tank assemblies, and parallel with other reactor tank assemblies. At least one mixer assembly is operationally disposed within the reactor tank assembly and is designed to mix the wastewater in the reactor tank assembly. At least one pH computer-monitored sensor assembly is disposed at least partially within the wastewater flow. At least one or more of acid and caustic from respective storage tanks is used to change the pH of the wastewater until treated and suitable for discharge.