JPH04114789A - Drinking water preparation apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To supply hydrogencarbonate-containing water with excellent taste by installing a tower filled with a carbonate-containing substance, a water supplying means to supply water to the tower, a carbonic acid gas supplying means, and a taking out means to take out water containing hydrogencarbonate. CONSTITUTION:When tap water is supplied to a pressure container 20 through a pipeline 14 and brought into contact with a carbonate-containing substance and at the same time carbonic acid gas is supplied from a carbonic acid gas bomb 24 under pressure, hydrogencarbonate salt components are dissolved in water and hydrogencarbonate-concentrated hard water is prepared. This hydrogencarbonate-concentrated water is diluted with tap water to the hardness of the water 300ppm by an ejector 30 and then sent to a carbonic acid removing tower 34. After the dissolved carbonic acid gas is removed by aeration by air from an air filter 38 in the carbonic acid removing tower 34, the water is filtered by a silver carrying activated carbon and a hollow fiber separation membrane in a filter unit 46 and slight malodorous taste is removed. Next, sterilization by a ultraviolet-ray sterilizing unit 58 is carried out. The obtained water containing hydrogencarbonate is mineral water with smooth and good taste.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an apparatus for producing drinking water, and more particularly to an apparatus for producing delicious drinking water with a high bicarbonate mineral content.

[Prior Art] In order to provide delicious drinking water, water purifiers are commercially available that use tap water as raw water and use activated carbon or hollow fiber membranes to remove free chlorine and suspended solids from tap water. .

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In these water purifiers, once the raw water is determined, the water quality is almost constant, and therefore the taste is only constant. That is, these water purifiers can only remove free chlorine, trace amounts of organic matter, iron, suspended solids, etc. from tap water, but cannot change dissolved ions in raw water. Therefore, changes in taste due to changes in dissolved ions cannot be expected. There are also equipment for producing mineral water and alkaline ionized water, but they can only produce water with a specific taste.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The drinking water production apparatus of the present invention comprises a tower filled with a carbonate-containing substance, a means for supplying water to the tower, a means for supplying carbon dioxide gas under pressure, and a The present invention is characterized by comprising a means for taking out water containing a carbonate hardness component.

[Function] The drinking water production device of the present invention produces extremely delicious water.
Water containing bicarbonate hardness components is supplied.

The inventors investigated famous waters around the world and found that most of the water that tastes good comes from underground. We conducted an experiment in which the reaction was performed in a controlled manner. the result,
The important component that makes water taste delicious is the bicarbonate hardness component among minerals, and it has been found that it is important that this is present in appropriate amounts in water.

However, this bicarbonate hardness component exists only in low concentrations in nature. That is, when the concentration of the bicarbonate hardness component increases, the bicarbonate hardness component is in a gas-liquid equilibrium relationship in which it is decomposed into carbonate and carbon dioxide gas as shown in the reaction formula below.

Therefore, high concentrations of bicarbonate hardness components are not present at atmospheric pressure.

Ca(HCO3)2 :l: CaCO3+H2
0+CO3Mg (HCO3)2: MgCO3
+H20+CO3 The drinking water production device of the present invention allows this reaction to occur simply and quickly, and produces water containing a high concentration of bicarbonate hardness components.

Examples of substances that elute bicarbonate hardness components in the coexistence of high-pressure carbon dioxide gas and water include minerals containing carbonate hardness components. There are many types of these minerals, such as limestone,
Examples include large buried stones. In addition to minerals, there are also substances mainly composed of carbonate components produced by living organisms such as coral skeletons and shells. (In the case of these biological carbonate-containing substances, it is possible to elute bicarbonate hardness components at higher concentrations more quickly under the above conditions than with minerals. This is because the contact area between carbonate and water is (In other words, it is thought that this is because these substances are porous.) When these carbonate-containing substances and water are filled in a pressure vessel and carbon dioxide pressure is applied, bicarbonate is formed. Hardness components are eluted.

Note that the bicarbonate-dissolved water eluted by the above method has an unusual odor and taste peculiar to each substance.

Adsorption using an adsorbent is an effective method for removing this. Activated carbon is an effective adsorbent. just,
Dissolved water contains a large amount of free carbon dioxide, and its presence does not allow effective adsorption under atmospheric pressure. As a solution to this problem, it is effective to simultaneously adsorb the bicarbonate hardness component under conditions that elute it, or to first degas free carbon dioxide gas and then adsorb it.

The bicarbonate hardness component obtained by the above method needs to be diluted to an appropriate concentration depending on the person's preference. There are various dilution methods, such as purified water that is treated with a water purifier that combines activated carbon and hollow fiber membranes, purified water that is further treated with a reverse osmosis membrane, and carbonated water that is made by dissolving carbon dioxide gas in purified water. You can drink it to taste as you like.

[Examples] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail based on Examples.

Figure 1J1 shows the overall flow of the drinking water production apparatus of the present invention.

Tap water, which is a raw material for the drinking water production apparatus shown in FIG. 1, is supplied through a pipe 10 and a valve 12.

Line 10 branches into line 14.16.

Piping 14 is connected to mineral water generation tower 1B. In the mineral water generation tower 18, a pressure vessel 20 is filled with carbonate-containing substances 22 such as limestone and shells, and tap water is introduced from a pipe 14, and carbon dioxide gas is introduced at a predetermined pressure from a gas cylinder 24. be done. A water collector 26 filled with silver-supported activated carbon is installed so as to be buried in the carbonate-containing material 22, and water containing bicarbonate is taken out through the water collector 26 and piping 28. In this example, the activated carbon is filled in a water collector in order to facilitate its replacement, but it may be filled in the pressure vessel in the same manner as the carbonate-containing substance. The pipe 28 is connected to a decarboxylation tower 34 via an ejector 30 and a pipe 32. A pipe 16 branched from the water pipe 10 is connected to the ejector 30, and the carbonate-containing water from the pipe 28 and tap water are mixed and introduced into a water sprinkler 36 at the top of the decarbonation tower 34. Ru.

The reason for mixing the bicarbonate-containing water and tap water in the ejector 30 is to dilute the water containing excessive bicarbonate with tap water to prevent precipitation of calcium carbonate and to reduce the hardness to 300 ppm. This is to dilute it to a degree of hardness suitable for drinking.

The decarboxylation tower 34 is filled with a filler such as a Raschig ring, and is equipped with an air filter 38, an air pump 40, and piping 42.
Dissolved carbon dioxide gas is released by blowing air through it. The decarboxylated water is sent via piping 44 to a filtration unit 46 . This filtration unit 4
6 includes a filtration layer 46a made of silver-supported activated carbon and a filtration layer 46b made of a hollow fiber separation membrane.

The decarboxylation tower 34 is connected to a washing water supply pipe 48, and is also provided with a washing water pipe 5o and a pipe 52 for discharging overflow water during the decarboxylation process.

Furthermore, an air filter 54 is connected to the decarboxylation tower 34 for removing bacteria in the air that is introduced when the water level decreases.

The filtration unit 46 passes through a pipe 56 and an ultraviolet sterilization unit 58 and is taken out as product drinking water.

In this embodiment, tap water is supplied into the pressure vessel 20 through a pipe 14 and brought into contact with a carbonate-containing substance, and carbon dioxide gas is supplied from a carbon dioxide gas cylinder 24 at a pressure in the range of 2 to 10 atmospheres. The bicarbonate component then dissolves into the water, creating water with a thick bicarbonate hardness. This concentrated bicarbonate aqueous solution is mixed with tap water using an ejector 30 and has a hardness of 30.
After being diluted to about 0 ppm, it is sent to the decarboxylation tower 34. Then, dissolved carbon dioxide gas is removed by aeration with air from the air filter 38 in the decarboxylation tower 34, and then filtered with silver-supported activated carbon and a hollow fiber separation membrane in the filtration unit 46 to eliminate trace amounts of off-odor taste. Remove. Next, it is sterilized using an ultraviolet sterilization unit 58.

The water containing the bicarbonate hardness component thus produced is a mellow and delicious high mineral water.

[Effects] As described above, according to the drinking water production apparatus of the present invention, extremely delicious bicarbonate-containing water can be easily supplied.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a system diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. 18... Mineral water generation tower, 34...Decarboxylation tower.

Claims (1)

[Claims] It is characterized by comprising a column filled with a carbonate-containing substance, a means for supplying water to the column, a means for supplying carbon dioxide gas under pressure, and a means for taking out water containing a bicarbonate hardness component. Drinking water production equipment.