INNOVATIVE WATER PURIFICATION METHOD AND DEVICES

摘要

The main sources of drinking water are often polluted by industrial and municipal chemicals. Water treatment plants reduce the concentrations of harmful chemicals in water to a safe level and mandatory disinfection renders water non-hazardous from a bacteriological standpoint. However, conventional water treatment technologies using chlorine result in formation of disinfectant by-products. They have been proved to be strongly carcinogenic. Additionally, water quality deteriorates through the distribution networks. This is due to reproduction and decay of different microorganisms inside the water mains. Thus, at the endpoints of water networks, the concentrations of trihalomethanes, surface-active substances, iron compounds, etc., may exceed the maximum permissible concentration (MPC) by several times, and those of heterotrophs - up to hundred times. Contaminated water causes at least 80% of human diseases, therefore, innovative technologies for water treatment are urgently needed. There is also a worldwide demand for cost-effective means to prevent consumption of secondary contaminated tap water. Currently, the problem is being solved by manufacturing purified bottled water and by installing adsorption-filtering and osmotic systems. These systems are expensive both to operate and to maintain. A novel bubble-film extraction system for water treatment is an alternative to the above-mentioned systems. The principle of the innovation is based on the following fact: inherent secondary produced surface-active water contaminants act as water cleaning agents during its treatment by the stream of air bubbles in a space of special geometry. This method has been shown to purify water by 10-100 times more economically than by filtering through charcoal. The quality of purified water satisfies the WHO requirements. Pilot scale bubble-film extraction water purifiers were produced and tested. The method can be applied for groundwater conditioning and wasterwater post-purification. For advanced purification, very small amounts of special surface-active additives could be used to accelerate adsorption of pollutants to the interface and, hence, increase the degree of water purification. The additive serves as a disinfectant and additional carrier of contaminants such as bacteria, viruses, humic matter, iron and arsenic compounds, etc. The method could be used either in combination with conventional systems or instead of them.