JPH06285458A - Water purifying apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform purification treatment by arranging a photocatalytic material with high water contacting properties and high light receiving properties in a water channel and sterilizing water and algaeproofing by photocatalytic action. CONSTITUTION:A photocatalytic element 14 formed in such a way that a water contacting face and a light receiving face become three-dimensional like spiral shape and consisting of a porous photocatalyst-bonded sheet 20 is arranged in a translucent storing container provided on the midway of a water channel. The photocatalyst-bonded sheet 20 is formed e.g. by performing low temp. flame spraying of a phtoto-semiconductor ceramic such as TiO2 on polyester fabric. The major part of water flows along the spiral of the spiral photocatalytic element and the remaining part flows through the gap of the fabrics of the phtocatalyst-bonded sheets 20. Light is irradiated on the photocatalytic element 14 through the transparent part of the storing container to excite the catalytic action of the photocatalytic element 14 and to purify water.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a water purification apparatus for purifying water so as to prevent fungi and algae from being generated in water flowing in a water channel such as a cooling tower used in an air conditioner. Related to the improvement of.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Many water purification treatment apparatuses have been proposed in order to sterilize water by irradiating a photocatalyst material with light and to prevent algae from being generated in water. Thus, as an effective means for sterilizing water or preventing algae from being generated, it has recently been proposed to use a photocatalyst material (optical semiconductor) such as titania that is irradiated with light and has a bactericidal action or the like ( For example,
Japanese Patent Publication No. 2-55117 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-251290.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-45896).

In these prior arts, the photocatalyst material is used in the form of powder as it is or in an appropriate shape by a known method such as sintering, vapor deposition, sputtering, etc. (Japanese Patent Publication No. 2-55).
117), and used by coating the surface of a ceramic molded body (JP-A-2-251290). But,
All of these technologies sterilize water with photocatalytic materials,
Effectively purify the water in the waterway because it does not disclose the principle of preventing algae, but does not disclose any specific means for increasing the light receiving property while contacting the water flowing in the waterway with a wide contact area. I can't.

For example, as the most general prior art using photocatalysis, a photocatalyst material is supported on a cylindrical filtration filter which is concentrically arranged in the waterway, and the photocatalyst material is irradiated with light so that An apparatus for purifying water is known (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-68190). However, in this device, since the carrier on which the photocatalytic material is supported is cylindrical, the contact property with water and the light receiving property are low, and water cannot be efficiently purified.

[0005]

As already mentioned, this type of water purification treatment apparatus has a high chance of contacting water with the photocatalyst material in order to promote the photocatalytic action, and thus has high water contactability. In addition, it is required that the photocatalytic material is irradiated with as much light as possible and has high light receiving property. Any of the prior art,
No specific means for arranging the photocatalyst material in the water channel in consideration of the water contact property and light receiving property is disclosed.

An object of the present invention is to provide a water purification treatment device which has a high water contact property and a high light receiving property in a water channel and is capable of purifying water by disposing a photocatalytic material.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention has a photocatalyst element which is to be arranged in the water channel and at least part of which transmits light. The photocatalyst element is provided with a water purifying means for purifying the water by contacting the water flowing in the water channel while receiving the light transmitted through the storage container, and the photocatalyst element comprises a photocatalyst on a porous or porous carrier. A water purification apparatus comprising a photocatalyst-adhering sheet formed by adhering a material, and the photocatalyst-adhering sheet is arranged so that its water contact surface and light receiving surface are three-dimensional. To provide.

In order to make the water contact surface and the light receiving surface three-dimensional, the photocatalyst-coated sheet is formed or arranged so that the water flowing in the water channel bends like a spiral to form a curved passage through which the water flows. Or corrugated along the water flow direction so that the water flowing in the water channel contacts in multiple stages, or the water is formed in a hollow body that flows through the inside, and this hollow body is formed in a bellows shape or a fold shape. A spiral hollow tube that allows water to flow through the inside of the spiral, or is formed from a spiral hollow tube that allows water to flow through the inside of the spiral. Can be placed in.

The photocatalyst-coated sheet can be preferably formed by spraying optical semiconductor ceramics onto a fibrous sheet-shaped carrier such as polyester cloth at a low temperature, but it is porous or porous if it has water permeability. The photocatalyst material can be formed by adhering the photocatalyst material to a carrier made of other material, that is, a carrier made of other polymer material, wood, paper, glass, metal or the like by an appropriate method. Porous or porous (water permeability) of photocatalyst-coated sheet
Can be applied by other appropriate means such as mesh, punching, or foaming of open cells, except when the carrier itself has.

[0010]

As described above, when the water purifying apparatus comprises the photocatalytic element housed in the light-transmissive container to be placed in the water channel, the water flowing in the water channel passes through the container. The photocatalyst element is in contact with the photocatalyst element, and the photocatalyst element comprises a photocatalyst-adhering sheet formed by adhering a photocatalyst material to a porous or porous carrier, and the photocatalyst-adhering sheet has a water contact surface and a light receiving surface. Since they are arranged three-dimensionally, the water contact area and the light receiving area are large, and high water contact property and light receiving property can be obtained. Therefore, the photocatalyst material has a high bactericidal action and a high algae control action, and can purify the water in the water channel with high efficiency.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to the drawings, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail. FIG. 1 shows a water purification treatment apparatus 10 according to the present invention.
The water purification device 10 is composed of a photocatalyst element 14 which is housed while being supported by an appropriate supporting means in a translucent container 12 to be arranged in a water channel.
Is equipped with. This water purification treatment device 10 is, for example, as shown in FIG. 10, an appropriate position of a cooling water passage 108 that flows from a heat exchanger 102 of an air conditioner 100 to a cooling tower 106 via a pump 104, as in the illustrated embodiment. The pump 1
04 and the cooling tower 106, it may be arranged in a water channel portion, but may be arranged in another appropriate water channel.

Storage container 12 is shown in the embodiment of FIG. 1 to consist of a cylindrical container which is substantially transparent over its entire surface. However, the storage container 12 may have any shape other than the cylindrical shape suitable for irradiating the photocatalyst element 14 with light with high efficiency in accordance with the shape of the photocatalyst element 14 to be stored, for example, to be described later. In addition, the photocatalytic element 14 having the corrugated shape in FIG. 3 may have a corrugated shape, the photocatalytic element 14 having the spiral shape in FIG. 6 or 7 may have a corrugated shape, or any other shape. The storage container 12 does not need to be transparent on the entire surface, and may be partially transparent as long as it does not prevent the internal photocatalytic element 14 from being irradiated with light. At both ends of the storage container 12, there are connection pipes 18 and 18 'with flanges that should be connected to the water channel. This storage container 12 has a flange connection of these connection pipes 18 and 18' to the water channel. It is placed on the way.

The photocatalyst element 14 comprises a photocatalyst-adhering sheet 20 formed by adhering a photocatalyst material to a porous or porous carrier, and the photocatalyst-adhering sheet 20 has a three-dimensional water contact surface and a light receiving surface. It is arranged so that In the present specification, "the photocatalyst-deposited sheet is three-dimensionally arranged" means that a flat sheet having a strict meaning is three-dimensionally arranged, as will be understood from a later specific example. This is also meant to include the case of being molded into an appropriate three-dimensional structure.
Further, in the present specification, “porous” is meant to include “microporous” as fibrous materials have.

The carrier for the photocatalyst-adhered sheet 20 is preferably a fibrous sheet-shaped carrier such as polyester cloth, but other various polymeric materials, materials such as wood, paper, glass and metal are porous. Alternatively, a porous sheet-shaped carrier can be used. For example, in addition to using paper that is porous (microporous) itself, such as paper itself, punching metal, forming an appropriate material into a mesh, or forming into a sponge of open cells is possible. Can be used.

Further, the photocatalyst material may be an appropriate material capable of receiving light and performing sterilization and antialgal action by its photocatalytic function. A preferred photocatalytic material is TiO ₂
Although it is (titania), other materials having a photocatalytic function such as CdS and CdSe can be used.

Most preferably, the photocatalyst material element 14 can be formed by low temperature thermal spraying of a photo-semiconductor ceramic on a polyester cloth as described above, but other than that, a combination of metal spraying and titania spraying or The photocatalyst material can be formed on the carrier by another suitable means.

Various examples of photocatalytic elements 14 are shown in detail below in FIG. Photocatalytic element 14 of FIG.
Is a photocatalyst-coated sheet 20 in which a photocatalyst material is attached to a porous or porous carrier such as a mesh, punching metal, or fiber, and an axis line X-X orthogonal to the water flow (see FIG. 2A).
A photocatalyst element with a bent passage (a spiral photocatalyst element in the illustrated embodiment) 141 is formed by bending in a spiral shape.

Most of the water flowing in from the connecting pipe 18 of the storage container 12 flows from the inlet of the spiral of the photocatalyst element 141 to the outside along the spiral as shown in FIG. As shown by the dotted line 2 (A), the photocatalyst-coated sheet 20 flows linearly through the meshes or holes, but the linear flow is slight due to the resistance of the photocatalyst-coated sheet 20. The water flowing along the spiral is shown in Fig. 2 (B).
As shown in (3), it advances toward the center of the spiral, flows along the axis XX at this center, and flows out from the openings on both sides. Therefore, water can contact the photocatalyst-deposited sheet 20 while maintaining a relatively long contact length. In addition, the light is in the storage container 12
Is radiated from almost the entire outer peripheral surface of the spiral toward the center through the transparent portion of. In this way, the photocatalytic element 1
It can be seen that 41 can efficiently purify water while maintaining high water contact property and high light receiving property.

The photocatalyst element 14 shown in FIG. 3 has a photocatalyst-adhering sheet 20 in which a photocatalyst material is attached to a porous or porous carrier such as cloth, mesh or punching metal in a water flow direction so as to cross the water flow in multiple stages. It consists of a corrugated photocatalytic element 142 which is corrugated and formed.

Most of the water flowing in from the connecting pipe 18 of the storage container 12 is, as shown in FIG. 3A, in a multi-step manner by successively traversing the wave inclined surface of the photocatalyst-coated sheet 20 of the photocatalyst element 142. It contacts the photocatalyst-deposited sheet 20. Therefore, water can contact the photocatalyst-adhered sheet 20 while maintaining high contact. Further, the light passes through the transparent portion of the storage container 12 and is applied to almost the entire inclined surface of the wave. In this way, it can be seen that the photocatalytic element 142 can efficiently purify water while maintaining high water contact property and high light receiving property. Incidentally, this corrugated photocatalytic element 142
Are required to have high porosity or relatively coarse porosity so that the flow resistance of the water does not increase.

FIGS. 4 and 5 show two examples of photocatalytic elements 14 that can improve the light receiving property as well as the water contact property. In each example, the photocatalytic element 14 is
A photocatalyst-adhered sheet 20 in which a photocatalyst material is adhered to a porous or porous carrier such as cloth, mesh or punching metal.
The photocatalyst elements 143 and 144 are formed by molding water into a hollow body through which water flows. The hollow photocatalytic element 143 of FIG. 4 is formed in a bellows shape, and the hollow photocatalytic element 144 of FIG. 5 is formed in a star-shaped cross-section having a fold in the circumferential direction. It should be noted that both of the inner and outer surfaces of the hollow body should be bellows-like or pleated. The bellows or folds on the outer surface have the function of enhancing the light receiving property, and the bellows and folds on the inner surface have the function of enhancing the water contact property.

Most of the water flowing in from the connecting pipe 18 of the storage container 12 passes through the hollow body of the photocatalytic element 143 or 144 as shown in FIG. 3A, and the inner surfaces 143a, 144a of the hollow body. Has a bellows or folds, the contact area with water per unit length increases, and the water can contact the photocatalyst-adhered sheet 20 with high contact property. Further, since the light passes through the container 12 and is applied to the bellows or folds of the outer surfaces 143b and 144b of the hollow body, the light receiving property per unit length is similarly improved. In this way, it can be seen that the photocatalytic elements 143, 144 can efficiently purify water while maintaining high water contact property and high light receiving property. Incidentally, these photocatalytic elements 1
Since 43 and 144 do not become a resistance to water flow, the porosity may be low, but in view of the light transmittance, the porosity is preferably high.

FIGS. 6 and 7 show two other examples of the photocatalytic element 14 formed in a spiral shape so as to improve the light receiving property as well as the water contact property. The photocatalyst element 14 of FIG. 6 is composed of a spiral photocatalyst element 145 formed by spirally forming a belt-shaped porous photocatalyst deposition sheet 20 with a water channel as an axis. The photocatalytic element 145 diverts the water in the channel in the direction of the axis of the helix and out of between the turns of the helix, thus increasing contact with the water and traversing the axis of the helix. The emitted light is received by the photocatalytic element 145 with a large light receiving area.

The photocatalyst element 14 of FIG. 7 shows a spiral photocatalyst element 146 formed by forming the photocatalyst-adhering sheet 20 into a hollow pipe shape and further forming the hollow pipe 146a into a spiral shape. In the spiral photocatalyst element 146, in the same manner as the spiral photocatalyst element 145 of FIG. 6, water passes inside the spiral along the axis of the spiral, and water also passes inside the hollow pipe 146a so that the contact area with water is small. It will increase even more. Further, as in the spiral photocatalytic element 145 of FIG. 6, light is received with a large light receiving area.

FIG. 8 shows modified examples of the photocatalytic element 14 shown in FIGS. 4 to 7, and all of these modified examples are the hollow axis or spiral of the respective photocatalytic element 143 to 146 of FIGS. 4 to 7. Figure 4 shows tapered photocatalytic elements 143A to 146A in taper form by reducing the diameter of the hollow body or the diameter of the helix along the axis. These photocatalyst elements 143A to 146A also have high water contactability and high light receiving property similarly to the photocatalyst elements 143 to 146 shown in FIGS. 4 to 7. As shown in FIG. 8, the photocatalyst element of FIGS. 4 to 7 may be tapered, as opposed to being tapered.

Finally, FIG. 9 shows a fold-shaped fan-shaped photocatalytic element 144B formed by expanding the fold-shaped hollow photocatalytic element 144A of FIG. 8B. The photocatalytic element 144B has a light receiving effect improved because the element is expanded, but it is necessary to form a water channel in which water flows in a sheet shape in order to improve contact with water.

[0027]

According to the present invention, as described above, the photocatalyst element is housed in the translucent container to be placed in the water channel, and the photocatalyst element is porous or porous. Since the photocatalyst-coated sheet formed by coating the photocatalyst material on the body is arranged so that the water contact surface and the light receiving surface are three-dimensional, the water contact area and the light receiving area are large, and the high water contact property is obtained. A light receiving property can be obtained. Therefore, the photocatalyst material has a high bactericidal action and a high algae control action, and can purify the water in the water channel with high efficiency.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a water purification treatment device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a first example of a photocatalytic element used in the present invention, FIG. 2 (A) is a side sectional view thereof, and FIG. 2 (B) is a perspective view showing a half portion in section.

FIG. 3 shows a second example of the photocatalytic element used in the present invention, FIG. 3 (A) is a side sectional view thereof, and FIG. 3 (B) is a partial perspective view thereof.

FIG. 4 shows a third example of the photocatalytic element used in the present invention, FIG. 4 (A) is a side sectional view thereof, and FIG. 4 (B) is a lateral sectional view thereof.

5A and 5B show a fourth example of a photocatalytic element used in the present invention, FIG. 5A is a cross-sectional view thereof, and FIG. 5B is a side view thereof.

FIG. 6 shows a fifth example of a photocatalytic element used in the present invention, FIG. 6 (A) is a perspective view thereof, and FIG. 6 (B) is a side sectional view thereof.

7A and 7B show a sixth example of the photocatalytic element used in the present invention, FIG. 7A is a perspective view thereof, and FIG. 7B is a side sectional view thereof.

8 shows a modification of the third to sixth examples of the photocatalytic element used in the present invention, FIG. 8A is a side sectional view of the modification of FIG. 4, and FIG. The perspective view of the modified example,
6C is a side sectional view of the modification of FIG. 6, and FIG. 7D is a side sectional view of the modification of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a seventh example of the photocatalytic element used in the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a system diagram of an air conditioner to which the water purification processing device of the present invention is applied.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Water Purification Treatment Device 12 Storage Container 14 Photocatalyst Element 16 Connection Pipe 18 Connection Pipe 20 Photocatalyst Adhering Sheet 100 Air Conditioner 102 Heat Exchanger 104 Pump 106 Cooling Tower 141 Spiral Photocatalytic Element 142 Corrugated Photocatalytic Element 143 Bellows Photocatalytic Element 143a Inner surface 143b Outer surface 143A Tapered bellows-shaped photocatalytic element 144 Wrinkled photocatalytic element 144a Inner surface 144b Outer surface 144A Tapered fold-shaped photocatalytic element 144B Wrinkled fan-shaped photocatalytic element 145 Helical photocatalytic element 145A Tapered catalyst 6 spiral helical photocatalytic element 145A Hollow pipe 146A Tapered spiral photocatalytic element

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A photocatalyst element that is to be disposed in the water channel and is housed in a container for transmitting at least a part of light, the photocatalyst element for transmitting light passing through the container. The photocatalyst element is provided with a water purifying unit that purifies water by contacting water flowing in the water channel while receiving the photocatalyst element, from a photocatalyst-adhering sheet formed by adhering a photocatalyst material to a porous or porous carrier. And the photocatalyst-coated sheet is arranged so that its water contact surface and light-receiving surface are three-dimensional. 2. The water purification treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the photocatalyst-coated sheet is formed so as to form a bent passage through which water flowing in the water passage bends to flow. A water purification device. 3. The water purifying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the photocatalyst-coated sheet is corrugated along the water flow direction so that the water flowing in the water channel contacts in multiple stages. A water purification treatment device characterized by: 4. The water purification treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the photocatalyst-coated sheet is formed into a hollow body through which the water flows, and the hollow body has a bellows shape or a fold shape. A water purification treatment device characterized in that it is formed in. 5. The water purification treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the photocatalyst-coated sheet is formed in a spiral shape, and the inside of the spiral is arranged so that water can pass through. A characteristic water purification device. 6. The water purification apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the photocatalyst-coated sheet is formed of a spiral hollow tube through which the water flows, and the spiral of the hollow tube. A water purification treatment device characterized in that it is arranged so that water can pass through it.