JPH044086A - Evaporating and concentrating device for waste photographic processing liquid - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently and stably treat a waste photographic processing liquid by providing means for forcibly feeding the liquid by using a heat pump refrigerant pressurized by a compressor as a direct heating source and forcibly cooling the refrigerant before arriving at an expanding stage. CONSTITUTION:A liquid reservoir 33 as the force cooling means is provided in the midway line for drawing the waste liquid by a solenoid valve 6A from a waste photographic processing liquid storage tank 31. Further, a heat radiating means 2B connected in series to the outlet of the refrigerant pipe of a heating means 2a in a column 1 is provided. The refrigerant is cooled by passing of this radiating means 2B in the liquid reservoir 33, by which the waste processing liquid is warmed. The warmed liquid is supplied into the column 1. Evaporating and concentrating are stably sustained without losing the heat balance of the heat pump by supplying the warm waste liquid into the column 1.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a technique for improving the evaporation concentration efficiency when a heat pump is used as a heating and cooling source in an evaporation concentration apparatus for photographic processing waste liquid.

[Background of the invention]

In general, photographic processing of silver halide photographic materials includes development, fixing, washing, etc. in the case of black and white materials, and color development, bleach-fixing (or bleaching and fixing) in the case of color materials.
A combination of processes using a treatment liquid having one or more functions such as , water washing, and stabilization is performed.

In photographic processing in which a large amount of light-sensitive material is processed, components consumed during processing are replenished, while components that are eluted into the processing solution or concentrated by evaporation during processing (for example, bromide ions in the developer, bromide ions in the fixer), etc. A method is adopted to maintain the performance of the processing solution at a constant level by removing substances such as silver complex salts (such as silver complex salts) and keeping the processing solution components constant. -Part of the processing solution is discarded to remove thickening components in photographic processing.

In recent years, systems have been changing to systems in which the amount of replenishment fluid, including washing water, which is used as a replenishment fluid for washing, has been significantly reduced due to pollution and economic reasons, but photographic processing waste fluid is removed from the processing tank of automatic processors. The liquid was led through a waste pipe, diluted with waste liquid from washing water, cooling water from automatic processing machines, etc., and disposed of in sewers, etc.

However, due to stricter pollution regulations in recent years, it is possible to dispose of washing water and cooling water into sewers or rivers, but other photographic processing solutions [e.g. developer, fixer, color developer, bleach-fixer] (or bleaching solution, fixing solution), stabilizing solution, etc.] is practically impossible. For this reason, each photo processing company pays a collection fee to a specialized waste liquid processing company to collect the waste liquid, or installs pollution treatment equipment. However, the method of outsourcing to a waste liquid treatment company requires a considerable amount of space to store the waste liquid, is extremely expensive, and the initial investment (initial cost) for pollution treatment equipment is high. It has the disadvantage of being extremely large and requiring a large area to maintain.

Furthermore, specifically, as a pollution treatment method for reducing the pollution load of photographic processing waste liquid, activated sludge method (for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 51-12943 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 51-7952, etc.);
Evaporation method (JP-A-49-89437 and JP-A-56-339)
No. 96, etc.), electrolytic oxidation method (JP-A-48-84462,
49119458, JP 53-43478, JP 49-119457, etc.), ion exchange method (Japanese JP 51-37704, JP 53-383, JP 53-1985, etc.)
3-43271, etc.), reverse osmosis method (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 50-224
No. 63, etc.) Chemical treatment method (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 49-64257,
Japanese Patent Publication No. 57-37396, Japanese Patent Publication No. 53-12152, Japanese Patent Publication No. 4958833, Japanese Patent Publication No. 53-63763, Japanese Patent Publication No. 57-37395, etc.) are known, but these are still insufficient.

On the other hand, due to constraints from water resources, rising water supply and drainage costs, the simplicity of automatic processor equipment, and the work environment around automatic processors, in recent years, stabilization treatments have been used instead of washing with water, and Photographic processing using automatic developing machines (so-called waterless automatic developing machines) that do not require piping for water supply and drainage is becoming popular. In such processing, it is desired that cooling water for controlling the temperature of the processing liquid can also be omitted. In this kind of photographic processing that does not essentially use rinsing water or cooling water, compared to the case where there is photographic processing waste liquid from automatic processing machines, the pollution load is extremely large because it is not diluted with water, and on the other hand, the amount of waste liquid is small. There is.

Therefore, due to the small amount of waste liquid, it is possible to omit the piping outside the machine for supplying and waste liquid, which is considered to be a disadvantage of conventional automatic processors, as it is difficult to move after installation. The disadvantages such as the small space required, the high cost of piping work during installation, and the high energy cost of hot water supply pressure have been eliminated, and the machine has been made compact and simple enough to be used as an office machine. Benefits are demonstrated.

However, on the other hand, the waste liquid has an extremely high pollution load, and in light of pollution regulations, it has become completely impossible to drain the waste liquid into rivers or even sewers. Furthermore, such photo processing (using a large amount of running water,
Even though the amount of waste liquid from processing (processing without water washing) is small, for example, even in a relatively small-scale color processing laboratory, 1012
It will be about.

Therefore, waste liquid is generally collected by a waste liquid collection company and rendered harmless through secondary and tertiary processing.However, not only is the price of waste liquid collection increasing year by year due to rising collection costs, but collection efficiency is low in minilabs, etc., so it is difficult to do so. No one can come to collect the liquid, causing problems such as waste liquid filling the store.

On the other hand, in order to solve these problems, we aim to make it possible to easily process photographic processing waste liquid even in minilabs, etc.
Research has been conducted on heating photographic processing waste liquid to evaporate water to dryness or solidify it.
It is shown in No. 1 etc. According to research conducted by the inventors, when photographic processing waste liquid is evaporated, harmful or extremely malodorous gases such as sulfur dioxide gas, hydrogen sulfide, and ammonia gas are generated. It has been found that this is caused by the decomposition of thiorta ammonium and subsalts (ammonium salts, sodium salts, or potassium salts), which are often used as fixing solutions and bleach-fixing solutions in photographic processing solutions, due to high temperatures. Further, during the evaporation process, moisture and the like in the photographic processing waste liquid becomes vapor and gasifies, thereby expanding the volume and increasing the pressure in the evaporation pot. Therefore, this pressure causes the harmful or malodorous gases to leak out of the evaporation treatment apparatus to the outside of the apparatus, resulting in an extremely unfavorable working environment.

Therefore, in order to solve these problems,
No. 1 discloses a method of providing an exhaust gas treatment section such as activated carbon in the exhaust pipe section of an evaporation treatment device. However, this method has the serious drawback that water vapor from a large amount of water in the photographic processing waste liquid condenses or condenses in the exhaust gas treatment section, covering the gas absorption processing agent and causing it to instantly lose its gas absorption ability. However, it has not yet been put to practical use.

In order to solve these problems, the present applicant et al. installed a cooling condensing means to condense the vapor generated by the evaporation when evaporating photographic processing waste liquid, and further treated the condensed water generated by the condensation and also processed the non-condensable components. We have previously proposed a method and apparatus for treating photographic processing waste liquid, which is also treated and discharged to the outside.

However, it has been discovered that the above proposal has the following problems. That is, the vapor generated by the evaporation process is condensed by the cooling and condensing means, but if the cooling and condensing efficiency is poor, the proportion of vapor that is not condensed and released to the outside of the device increases, even if treated with activated carbon.
The rate at which foul-smelling and harmful gases are released to the outside of the device also increases. Furthermore, the condensed water condensed by the cooling condensation means
Even if it is treated with activated carbon, it may not be able to be discharged directly into the sewage system due to its odor or high pollution load when it is disposed of.

Furthermore, the space available in minilabs is extremely limited, and not only is the bad odor generated by processing photographic processing solutions a particular problem, but also the installation space for the waste solution processing equipment itself becomes a problem. Additionally, the price and running cost of the device are also important issues. Therefore, there is a need for a compact, inexpensive, stable processing device with low running costs that can process photographic processing waste liquid without emitting foul-smelling or harmful gases.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In this way, it is desirable to immediately evaporate and concentrate the photographic processing waste liquid using an on-day clot near the automatic processor. However, conventional electric heating is not a good idea because it consumes so much power.To solve this problem, the applicant used a heat pump as proposed in JP-A-63-151301, and the heating part and By using the cooling section to heat the evaporative concentration tank and cool the generated steam and gas, we succeeded in reducing power consumption by 50% or less.

However, although the efficiency of evaporation and concentration of photographic processing waste liquid using a heat pump is extremely good, the evaporation concentration rate of photographic processing waste liquid is much slower than the evaporation rate of water and is significantly inferior. Therefore, it is desirable to further improve the evaporation concentration rate of the waste liquid to further increase the evaporation concentration efficiency in the case of the heat pump method. In response to such demands, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for evaporating and concentrating photographic processing waste liquid with high evaporation and concentration efficiency.

[Means to solve the problem]

This objective is achieved by the following means (a) or (b).

(a) In an evaporative concentration device for photographic processing waste liquid, which heats and evaporates photographic processing waste liquid and liquefies the resulting vapor by cooling and condensing it, a heat radiating section of a heat pump is provided as the heating source for the heating evaporation, A photograph characterized in that the heat pump is provided with an endothermic section, a heat pump refrigerant pressurized by a compressor is directly used as the heat source, and a means is provided for forcibly cooling the refrigerant before it reaches the expansion step. Evaporative concentration equipment for treated waste liquid.

(b) The apparatus for evaporating and concentrating photographic processing waste liquid according to item (a), wherein the heating evaporation and cooling condensation of the vapor are performed under reduced pressure conditions.

[Effect]

Although the mechanism of action of the present invention is not clear, it is expected that
When photographic processing waste liquid is evaporated and concentrated, ammonia gas, sulfur dioxide gas, and carbon dioxide gas are generated depending on the type and condition of the waste liquid.

These gases are involved in evaporation and condensation, and their condensability is poorer than that of water vapor, so the evaporation efficiency of photographic waste liquid is significantly lower than that of simply evaporating water. On the other hand, it is believed that the content of the present invention strongly brings the heat pump thermal cycle closer to the standard conditions and increases the evaporation efficiency of photographic processing waste liquid.

〔Example〕

A first embodiment of the evaporation concentration apparatus of the present invention will be described using the schematic diagram of FIG.

A photographic processing waste liquid was injected and stored in a reduced pressure evaporation concentration column (hereinafter simply referred to as column) 1 that can withstand reduced pressure, and a pressure reducing means 7 was connected to the upper vapor condensing section 5 of the column 1 to reduce the pressure. It is known that boiling occurs below the critical point under reduced pressure below atmospheric pressure, and in this example, evaporation at a low temperature where gas generation is unlikely to occur is carried out under this reduced pressure. Next, a heating means 2A having a three-dimensional arrangement is provided in the column 1, and this heating element 1'12
A is immersing its lower part in the storage part 4 of the photographic processing waste liquid,
As the photographic processing waste liquid is heated, its upper part protrudes from the storage section of the photographic processing waste liquid and is in the air, and the photographic processing waste liquid is transferred to this part from the waste liquid storage tank (container) 31 by the electromagnetic valve 6A. The feeding means 3 is used to feed the material into the column, and in addition to heating and evaporating under reduced pressure, heating and evaporating during the spraying and dropping process are repeated to achieve efficient and rapid concentration.

The water evaporated here is made to contribute to compactness and stabilization of the reduced pressure inside the column by providing a cooling means 8A, a condensed water guide, and a water receiver 8C at the upper part of the column 1. On the other hand, the components solidified to a high concentration by repeating the above evaporation concentration are collected in a container 12 connected to the lower part of this column 1. In this invention, the reason why the heating means 2 is arranged three-dimensionally in the liquid and in the air is that the submerged part is mainly used to preheat the photographic processing waste liquid, and the aerial part increases the contact area with the photographic processing waste liquid that is sprayed onto it. It has the effect of uniformly and efficiently performing low-temperature evaporation without gas generation. Furthermore, a cooling means 8A was provided at the upper part of this column 1 to capture the water vapor rising from the lower part, cool it, condense it, and recover it as water droplets. This has the effect of reducing the pressure reduction balance in this column 1 caused by the generated steam and reducing the heavy load placed on the pressure reduction device 7 (in this example, an ejector is used) to maintain a specified reduced pressure state. . That is, when the pressure within the column 1 increases due to generated steam, it is immediately cooled and condensed to suppress the pressure increase.

In this configuration, if the part of the heating means 2 in the liquid is set to the optimal temperature for the reduced pressure evaporation, the part of the heating means 2 that is in the air is also managed at the same temperature, and due to the difference in the electrothermal effect, the part in the air is The actual surface temperature of the part in the air will be high, and if the photographic processing waste comes into contact with this, it will heat up rapidly and unpleasant gas will be generated. The temperature of the heating means may be kept below the gas generation temperature, or the heating means may be separately controlled within the liquid and outside the liquid to maintain appropriate temperatures.

Further, in the present invention, a heat pump is used as the heating means 2 and the cooling means 8A. The water vapor comes into contact with the surface of this cooling means and condenses, forming water droplets and forming water vapor on the surface of this cooling means 8.
A and is collected in the water collection container 9. The surface temperature of the heating means is preferably 10,000 or less, and in particular 20°C to prevent ammonia gas generation, which is the object of the present invention.
~60°C is most preferred).

A heat radiating section of a heat pump is used as the heating means 2A, and the cooling means 8 is provided in the cooling means 8A and the water recovery container 9.
B uses the heat absorption part of a heat pump.

A charge pipe 25 for charging the condenser of the heat pump constituting the heating means 2A and the heating means 2
A and the refrigerant in the pipes connected to it are transferred to the air-cooled condenser 22.
The fan 24, the fan motor 23, the capillary tube 26 that functions as an expansion valve and the compressor 21 for compressing the refrigerant installed on the outside of the cooling means 8A are placed outside the column L. There is.

Now, the refrigerant passes through the radiator of the heating means 2^ and the air-cooled condenser, and is connected from the capillary tube 26 to the cooling means 8B in the water recovery container 9, and its extension is the cooling means 8A.
The compressor 2 outside the column 1 passes through a pipe connected to the refrigerant evaporator of the upper vapor condensing section 5 in the column 1.
It is intended to return to 1.

The cold water in the water recovery container 9 is pumped through a water circulation pump (P-2).
) 33 to the pressure reducing device (ejector) 7, and the condensate recovery port 8C of the vapor condensing section 5 at the top of the column l.
The water drawn through the pipe 34 is put into the water recovery container 9, and at the same time, the pressure inside the column 1 is reduced.

Further, water overflowing from the water recovery container 9 is sent to a water tank 35 through a pipe 36. This is then drained into the sewer.

In this way, much of the evaporated vapor is liquefied by a fairly simple heat pump, and only a small amount is exhausted through the exhaust port 36A, so that odor is completely prevented.

The evaporation concentration apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention is as described above.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described using the schematic diagram of FIG. As shown in the figure, in this embodiment, a photographic processing waste liquid is used in place of the forced air-cooled condenser 22 used in the first embodiment. That is, a liquid pool 33 is provided as a forced cooling means in the middle of pumping up the waste liquid from the waste liquid storage tank (container) 31 with the electromagnetic valve 6A, and a liquid pool 33 is provided there as a forced cooling means, and the heating means in the column 1 is connected in series with the outlet of the two refrigerant pipes. Connected heat dissipation means 2
By passing through the liquid reservoir 33, the refrigerant is cooled, and the waste liquid is warmed and supplied into the column 1. By supplying this warm waste liquid to column 1, there is an advantage that evaporative concentration can be stably maintained without disrupting the heat balance of the heat pump. Furthermore, it can be said to be a highly energy-efficient method because it can heat at a higher temperature than when the same power is applied.

Furthermore, in a third embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. Heating means 2
Since the capillary tube 26 is connected between the person and the capillary tube 26 to allow the refrigerant to pass therethrough, a 7-amp 24 and a fan motor (FM) 23 are provided as forced air cooling means.
A liquid reservoir 33 for photographic processing waste liquid is provided as a forced cooling means.

The upstream and downstream relationships between the forced air cooling means and the forced cooling means may be reversed to the above order.

The amount and timing of replenishment of the photographic processing waste liquid into the column 1 is determined based on information detected by the level sensor (LC) 64.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, the evaporation concentration efficiency of the evaporation concentration apparatus for photographic processing waste liquid when a heat pump is used is further improved. In other words, highly efficient evaporation and concentration has become possible with less energy.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a third embodiment of the present invention. l... Evaporation concentration column 2A... Heating means 2B...
・Heat radiation means 5... Cooling condensing section 6A... Solenoid valve 8A, 8B... Cooling means 21... Compressor

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) In an evaporative concentrator for photographic processing waste liquid that heats and evaporates the photographic processing waste liquid and liquefies the resulting vapor by cooling and condensing it, a heat radiation section of a heat pump is provided as the heat source for the heating evaporation, A photograph characterized in that the heat pump is provided with an endothermic section, a heat pump refrigerant pressurized by a compressor is directly used as the heat source, and a means is provided for forcibly cooling the refrigerant before it reaches the expansion step. Evaporative concentration equipment for treated waste liquid. (2) The apparatus for evaporating and concentrating photographic processing waste liquid according to claim 1, wherein the heating evaporation and cooling condensation of the vapor are performed under reduced pressure conditions. (3) The apparatus for evaporating and concentrating photographic processing waste liquid according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the forced cooling of the heat pump refrigerant is an air cooling structure.