JP3184253B2 - Water treatment equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a water treatment apparatus for purifying drinking water such as tap water, for example, a water treatment apparatus used for homes, apartment houses, or industries such as hotels and restaurants.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Tap water, for example, contains residual chlorine, red rust, and various substances, and some of them cause deterioration in the taste of drinking water. Therefore, various water purifiers have been introduced to remove or filter components that impair the taste of water. Typical of those used in water purifiers for filtering these components are activated carbon and hollow fiber membranes. Activated carbon is obtained by activating charcoal with steam or the like, and has numerous holes. Chlorine and organic substances dissolved in water are removed by adsorbing on the surface of the activated carbon. A hollow fiber membrane is a membrane having fine pores of about 0.01 to 0.1 micron on the surface of a hollow fiber. This hollow fiber membrane has an action of removing impurities such as bacteria and red rust. Therefore, most of the commercially available water purifiers among water treatment apparatuses have a structure in which activated carbon and a hollow fiber membrane are combined.

The main purpose of a water treatment apparatus such as a water purifier for purifying tap water is to remove chlorine from tap water which has been sterilized with chlorine. However, if residual chlorine is removed from tap water, various bacteria will propagate in the water treatment device. Therefore, a water treatment apparatus using activated carbon coated with silver ions has also appeared to suppress the propagation of various bacteria.

[0004]

However, activated carbon coated with silver ions has a problem that its bacteriostatic (antibacterial) effect is lost by long-term use since silver ions are relatively easily dissolved. Was. For example, it has been confirmed that when 2,000 liters of water is passed through activated carbon coated with silver ions, the bacteria contained in the water multiply in large quantities.

Further, the hollow fiber membrane used simultaneously with the activated carbon is clogged by impurities, which not only reduces the amount of water to be purified, but also makes the potting agent vulnerable to heat. There was a problem of destroying itself. Therefore, it has been considered that the limit of the temperature of water that can pass through such an apparatus is about 40 ° C. For this reason, for example, when a household water purifier is used by attaching to a faucet of a hot and cold water mixing type water tap, if hot water heated by a water heater is mistakenly passed from the faucet to the water purifier, a hollow fiber membrane or the like is arranged. There was also a problem that the inside of the cassette was damaged and the cassette part had to be replaced.

Further, in such a conventional water treatment apparatus,
The main purpose was to remove impurities from the water, and it was inadequate in keeping the variety of various ions as another factor in making delicious water.
For this reason, it was thought that the water which passed through such a water treatment device could not compete with commercially available mineral water at all.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a water treatment apparatus which balances various ions and has a bacteriostatic effect.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a water treatment apparatus that can withstand hot water.

[0009]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, at least two types of zeolites, Ca-type zeolites ion-exchanged with calcium ions and Ag-type zeolites ion-exchanged with silver ions, are placed in purification water. And
A part of the above zeolite is ion-exchanged with hydrogen ions.
H type zeolite is used.
You.

That is, according to the first aspect of the present invention, calcium ions are eluted by the Ca-type zeolite, while a bacteriostatic effect is provided by the Ag-type zeolite. C
Elution of calcium ions by the a-type zeolite makes up for the shortage and realizes delicious water. Further, since Ag-type zeolite ion-exchanges silver, a long-term bacteriostatic effect can be realized. Moreover, the present invention
Now, the H-type zeolite ion-exchanged with hydrogen ions
Used as part of the zeolite described
Removes lucium ions and removes them
Hard water can be turned into mineral water. In addition,
What water quality is used in the country or region where the water treatment equipment is used
H type zeolite and Ca type zeolite
By changing the percentage of light, various types of underwater
The ratio of ions can be set to an ideal state.
Generally, so-called mineral drinking water includes iron, copper, zinc,
Various metal ions such as manganese and magnesium, and calcium
Mion etc. are contained. Of these various ions in the water
By controlling the amount, hard water and soft water become more delicious
Comb can make water equivalent to mineral drinking water.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, a water treatment apparatus is constituted by mixing at least two types of zeolites and activated carbon and storing the mixed zeolites in a cartridge which can withstand hot water. That is, since the zeolite and the activated carbon are housed in the cartridge in the water treatment apparatus according to the second aspect, unlike the hollow fiber membrane, the structure can withstand hot water.

[0012]

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to embodiments.

FIG. 1 shows a main part of the structure of a household water purifier as an embodiment of a water treatment apparatus. A switching lever 13 is disposed on a fitting 12 attached to the tap faucet 11, and when this is set downward as shown in the figure, tap water (raw water) flows out of the first outlet 14 as it is. Has become. When the switching lever 13 is set to the right side, the raw water flows into the cartridge 16 loaded in the cylindrical container 15 arranged in this direction, passes through the inside, and then flows out from the second outlet 17. It has become so.

The cartridge 16 is made of plastic which can sufficiently withstand hot water near 100 ° C. A filter 21 made of a nonwoven fabric is disposed on the raw water inflow side and the purified water outflow side therein, and the remaining portion is filled with a mixture of granular activated carbon 22, zeolite 23 and antibacterial zeolite 24. These granular activated carbon 22, zeolite 23 and antibacterial zeolite 24
Are adjusted to have a particle size of 1 to 2 mm, respectively.

The filter 21 has a role of removing iron rust and other fine dust in the water. 40 for non-woven fabric
It is made of a material that can sufficiently withstand hot water at a temperature of 90 ° C to 90 ° C. The granular activated carbon 22 removes chlorine and organic compounds. In the zeolite 22, Ca-type zeolite ion-exchanged with calcium ions and H-type zeolite ion-exchanged with hydrogen ions are mixed and used in a state where the former is large. These zeolites may be natural zeolites or synthetic zeolites. Further, a mixture of these natural and synthetic zeolites as appropriate may be used. Antibacterial zeolite 23 is
Ag-type zeolite ion-exchanged with silver ions, which is ion-exchanged using natural zeolite or synthetic zeolite. Here, the synthetic zeolite may be prepared by a dry method or may be prepared by a wet method.

Ca-type zeolite is Ca (OH)_TwoC
a^{2 +}Ion and Mg in zeolite ^{2 +}, Na⁺, K⁺
It is obtained by ion exchange of ions. Ca^{2 +}
When ions exchange with metal ions in the water,
Ca^{2 +}Addition of ions is performed. This reaction is shown below.
You. However, here Me²⁺Represents a metal ion
You.

[0018]

Embedded image

Table 1 below shows the results of passing water through the Ca-type zeolite. The water after passing through the raw water is C
a ^{2 +} ions are added, and metal ions are removed.

[0020]

[Table 1]

[0021] H-type zeolite, Ca ^{2 +} in the H ⁺ ions and the zeolite of ^{HCl, Mg 2 +, Na +} , are those K ⁺ ions is obtained by ion exchange, the H ⁺ ions in water, In particular, the H-type zeolite removes various ions by ion exchange with Ca ²⁺ and Mg ²⁺ ions in hard water.
This reaction is shown below. Here, Me ²⁺ represents a metal ion.

[0022]

Embedded image

The following Table 2 shows the results of passing water through the H-type zeolite. Ca from water after passing through raw water
²⁺ ions and metal ions have been removed.

[0024]

[Table 2]

In this water treatment apparatus, the above-mentioned Ca-type
Other metal-type zeolites may be used.
Metal zeolite is composed of various metal ions and zeolite.
Ca ^{2 +}, Mg^{2 +}, Na⁺, K⁺Ions are ion-exchanged
It was obtained. This metal ion is in water
Na⁺When ion exchanged with ions, metal
Addition of ions is performed. This reaction is shown below. However
And here Me²⁺Represents a metal ion.

[0026]

Embedded image

Table 3 below shows the results of passing water through the metal zeolite. Metal ions are added to the water after passing through the raw water.

[0028]

[Table 3]

Table 4 below shows the results of passing water through the Ag-type zeolite. Metal ions are added to the water after passing through the raw water. In this example, metal ions and Ca ^{2 +} ions are removed by Ag-type zeolite.

[0030]

[Table 4]

The Ag-type zeolite also has a bacteriostatic function as a function of preventing the growth of bacteria in the water treatment device due to the presence of Ag. When the number of bacteria was examined after passing 2000 liters of water in the same manner as described above in the water treatment apparatus using the Ag type zeolite, no increase in the bacteria was observed, and the bacteriostatic action of the Ag type zeolite was effectively maintained. It was confirmed that.

FIG. 2 shows the ion exchange capacity of zeolite. As shown in this figure, the ion exchange capacity of zeolite is high when the ion concentration in water is high, and is low when the ion concentration is low. In this figure, the concentration is expressed as a magnification of the theoretical exchange amount, and the ion exchange amount is shown per 10 g of zeolite.

Therefore, in a water treatment device to be shipped to a country or a region where the water quality is hard water, the H-type zeolite among the above-mentioned zeolites can be used alone or as a main component to balance various ions. Can be taken. In addition, water treatment equipment shipped to countries or regions where the water quality is soft water removes or adds various metal ions by using only Ca-type zeolite or other metal-type zeolites, or by using these as main components. Similarly, various ions can be balanced. In this way, by considering the type and distribution of the zeolite, it is possible to obtain mineral water containing an appropriate amount of minerals. In addition, the amount of change of the ion of the water after purification with respect to the raw water can also be changed by the amount of the zeolite and the water passage time.

[0034]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, since at least two types of zeolites, Ca-type zeolite and Ag-type zeolite, are disposed in the purification water, a large amount of calcium ions is contained. Delicious water can be obtained without the risk of being contaminated by bacteria. In addition, H-type zeolite is used in addition to Ca-type zeolite.
The use of various tap water in Japan
Good balance of mineral and delicious like mineral water
You can get water.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the hot water can be purified by passing the hot water through the cartridge, for example, the hot water obtained from the water heater can be purified. There is an effect that tea and coffee can be added.

[0036]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a household water purifier of the present embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a characteristic diagram showing the ion exchange capacity of zeolite.

[Explanation of symbols]

 16 Cartridge 22 Granular Activated Carbon 23 Zeolite 24 Antibacterial Zeolite

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI C02F 1/50 510 C02F 1/50 510A 520 520B 531 531E 540 540F 560 560D (56) References JP-A-1-278408 (JP, A) JP-A-3-106489 (JP, A) JP-A-56-37089 (JP, A) JP-A-61-125395 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) ) C02F 1 / 68,1 / 28 C02F 1 / 42,1 / 50

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] (1) Ca ion-exchanged with calcium ions
At least two types of zeolite, i.e., zeolite and Ag-type zeolite ion-exchanged with silver ions, are placed in purification water, and a part of the zeolite is ionized with hydrogen ions
A water treatment apparatus, wherein the exchanged H-type zeolite is used . 2. The water treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least two types of zeolites and activated carbon are mixed and housed in a cartridge that withstands passage of hot water.