JPH0985253A - Ionized water preparation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To elute a large amount of mineral content and improve the sterilization effect by separating water by means of an electrolytic membranes, the water through at least two electrodes of different potential and setting a mineral source storage section between the electrodes, in an ionized water preparation device in which the electrodes are separated by the electrolytic membrane and disposed therein. SOLUTION: PAN family carbon fiber fabrics are used as electrodes 21 -23 on an electrolytic layer 1, and electrolytic membranes 31 and 32 are disposed as interstructures among respective electrodes 22 and 23 to constitute respectively a first electrolysis chamber, a second electrolysis chamber .... A cartridge 4 storing a mineral source (granite porphyry, coral sand or the like) eluting mineral is disposed between the electrodes 22 and 23 . When the mineral source is passed after passing the first electrode, ion exchange is generated between acidic water and the mineral source as above-mentioned, and a large amount of mineral can be eluted into water.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an alkaline ionized water generator which efficiently sterilizes bacteria contained in alkaline or acidic ionized water produced by electrolysis and which contains a large amount of minerals.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An ion generator is an approved item name of a medical substance generator or an electrolyzed water producing apparatus for medical use, and is designated as a medical device under the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law. Notification of Pharmaceutical Affairs Bureau Ministry of Health and Welfare "Yakuhin No. 763
According to "Precautions and Precautions" described in "No. (October 8, 1965)", catholyte (hereinafter referred to as alkaline water) is referred to as chronic diarrhea, indigestion, stomach. It is effective for internal abnormal fermentation, antacid, and gastric hypertrophy, and anolyte (hereinafter referred to as acidic water) is used for beauty as a weakly acidic astringent.

As a method of electrolyzing water to obtain alkaline water, there has been a batch method for a long time, but recently, a continuous method has become mainstream. This is because the main components such as the anode, cathode and electrolytic membrane (separator) are placed in an electrolytic cell container in an appropriate form, and tap water is passed through, and at the same time a direct current voltage is applied to electrolyze the alkaline water. And acidic water can be continuously taken out.

However, in both batch type and continuous type, acidic water is obtained at the anode and alkaline water is obtained at the cathode, which is basically achieved by connecting one power source to the electrode. Even when the number of electrodes exceeds three, the effect is mainly to increase the area of the electrodes, that is, to reduce the current density, and even if one power source is connected to a large number of electrodes, its anode Acid water and alkaline water were obtained at the cathode, which was basically a two-electrode electrolytic cell.

[0005]

However, the continuous type has a drawback in that water is likely to accumulate in the apparatus due to its structure, and bacteria are likely to grow in the accumulated water especially when it is not used. In addition, bacterial growth in water, which is often retained in activated carbon used as a purification material, can be considerably suppressed by the use of antibacterial activated carbon coated with silver or the like in recent years, but at present, the device is unusable. If there is a period of use, there are still many points to be improved, such as the need to discard water at the beginning of water flow.

[0006]

The present invention has been made in order to achieve the above object, and its gist is to provide an electrolytic cell, a water supply channel on one side thereof, and alkaline ionized water discharge on the other side thereof. In an ion generator having a channel and an acidic ionized water drainage channel, in which at least three electrodes are separated by an electrolytic membrane, water passing through at least one drainage channel is separated by the electrolytic membrane and has different potentials. The present invention relates to an ion water generator characterized in that at least two electrodes are passed through and a mineral source accommodating portion for eluting minerals is installed between them.

In the above electrolyzer, water preferably flows in parallel with the electrodes, and carbon fiber electrodes or insoluble electrodes are preferably used as the electrode material. In particular, the carbon fiber electrode coated with a noble metal, preferably palladium or ruthenium, has a very high electrolysis efficiency.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION As described above, in a two-electrode electrolytic cell, only one type of electrode can pass through both alkaline water and acidic water. Even in this case, the effect of sterilizing bacteria in water by an electrochemical action has been conventionally known. However, the inventors have constructed a multi-electrode electrolytic cell in which water passing through a drainage channel is separated by an electrolytic membrane and passes through at least two electrodes having different electric potentials while controlling PH, and It was confirmed on the alkaline water side and the acidic water side that the sterilization efficiency can be much higher than that of the conventional two-electrode electrolyzer.

Further, when the side that passes through the two kinds of electrodes is taken as the alkaline water side, due to the potential difference, it becomes acidic water immediately after passing through the first electrode, and then passes through the second electrode. After that, it becomes alkaline water. Thus, basically, H ⁺ ions are generated at the anode (first electrode), and OH ⁻ ions are generated at the cathode (second electrode). Therefore, when passing through the mineral source part capable of eluting minerals after passing through the first electrode, ion exchange occurs between the acidic water and the mineral source, and the mineral water can be eluted into a large amount of mineral water. When passing through the second electrode in this state, H ⁺ ions in the water are reduced and sharply reduced. That is, alkaline water containing a large amount of minerals is discharged to the alkaline water discharge passage.

To describe the sterilizing function in the case of a three-electrode electrolyzer, in the anode (first electrode), chlorine ions contained in water, especially in tap water, are oxidized and chlorine and two electrons are generated (2Cl ^- → Cl ₂ + 2e
^- ). Then, chlorine reacts with water to generate hypochlorous acid (C
l ₂ + H ₂ O → HClO + HCl, HClO → H ⁺ + C
lO ^-). The ClO ^- becomes the sterilizing function can be exhibited at the anode (first electrode) by. At the cathode (second electrode), the reaction of ClO ⁻ + 2H + 2e ⁻ → Cl ⁻ + H ₂ O is performed, and the excessive ClO ⁻ is the original harmless C
l ^- Back to.

To further describe the bactericidal action, it has been confirmed that the anode in the conventional electrolysis has a certain bactericidal action. That is, the acidic water was sterilized, but the alkaline water was not sterilized. However, in the present invention, since the alkaline water also comes into contact with the anode and then becomes alkaline water, there is an advantage that the alkaline water obtained by the present invention is also sterilized.

As described above, it is particularly preferable to use carbon fiber as the electrode material of the present invention, which is an electrode made by weaving or weaving a fiber-shaped electrically conductive material. The contact area (time) between the substance (water) and the electrode is significantly larger than that of a normal insoluble electrode. For example, the roughness factor (actual contact area / apparent electrode area) is 2 to 3 for insoluble electrodes, while 1,000 to 10 for carbon fiber electrodes.
000. Further, by coating this electrode with a noble metal, specifically with palladium, the electrolytic voltage can be lowered, and at the same time, chlorine (Cl ₂ ) or hypochlorous acid (ClO ⁻ ) is generated. It is preferable that the electrolysis effect is further exerted due to its excellent catalytic ability, and that the flow of water in the electrolytic cell flows parallel to the electrodes. This carbon fiber electrode is inexpensive, and is easy to handle even when assembling an electrolytic cell without causing corrosion.

The mineral source storage portion is preferably a replaceable cartridge type, and as mineral components, coral sand (coral sand), barley stone, Io stone,
Examples include solid tablets and powders of sunstone, calcium lactate and calcium sulfite. This mineral source is dissolved by acidic water, and the mineral component is more dissolved than usual.

[0014]

The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the following examples. (Example 1) As shown in FIG.
An electrode electrolyzer was manufactured. Electrolyzer 1 has electrodes 2 ₁ , 2 ₂ , 2
₃ as PAN-based carbon fiber fabric (Toray-made trading card cloth
CY6343B, 10 × 5 cm), and an electrolytic film (Yumicron Y-9201T made by Yuasa Battery) 3 between each electrode.
₁ , 3 and ₂ were arranged as partition walls to form a first electrolysis chamber, a second electrolysis chamber, .... The electrode 2 _2, 2 ₃ and mineral source for eluting the minerals between (elvan 1g, co - Rarusando 1 g) - was placed cartridge four housing a.

[0015] The water supply side of the electrolytic cell 1, an E. coli suspension of known tap water and the concentration is pumped by the pump 5 was supplied at 10 ml / min, the electrode 2 ₁
10 mA (i _A), the electrode 2 ₃ 5 mA (i _B) PH change in alkaline water that is drained current in alkaline water discharge port 6 by flowing of the concentration change and PH changes in mineral density and Escherichia coli was measured . In the figure, 7 is an acidic water drainage port, and 8 is a power supply.

(Example 2) In the same ion water generator as in Example 1, the electrodes 2 ₁ , 2 ₂ , 2 ₃ were replaced with palladium black plated, and the other conditions were the same as those in Example 1. went.

Comparative Example 1 The ion generator of Comparative Example 1 is as shown in FIG. That is, in the same electrolytic cell water as in Example 1, -10 mA to the electrodes 2 _1, which the electrode 2 ₃ flows a current of -5 mA, which is equivalent to a bipolar electrolyzer when viewed from the alkaline water side belongs to. Then, the change in the concentration of E. coli and the change in pH of the alkaline water discharged through the alkaline water drainage port 15 were measured. Alkaline water drain 15
Is the acidic water drainage port (7) in Example 1.

Comparative Example 2 The ion generator of Comparative Example 2 is as shown in FIG. That is, 10m between the electrodes 2 ₄ and 2 ₅
The current of A was passed, the same tap water as in Example 1 was supplied at the same flow rate, and the concentration and pH of the minerals drained after 15 minutes at the alkaline water drainage port 15 were measured. The same electrodes, electrolytic membranes and mineral sources as those used in Example 1 were used.

(PH measurement) In Examples 1 and 2, the alkaline water discharge port 5, the acidic water discharge port 6 and the electrodes 2 ₂ , 2 ₃
In the intermediate portion 10 between and, the PH value was measured over time.
The measurement result in Example 1 is as shown in FIG.
The results in Example 2 also showed almost the same results.
Also in Comparative Example 1, the pH value was similarly measured with time at the alkaline water outlet 15, the acidic water outlet 16 and the intermediate portion 20. The measurement results are as shown in FIG.
As a result of measuring these PH values, it can be seen that the ion generator of the present invention can obtain sufficiently electrolyzed alkaline water and acidic water.

(Mineral Concentration) In Example 1 and Comparative Example 2, the concentration of minerals in the water discharged from the alkaline water discharge ports 6 and 15 was measured 15 minutes after the electrodes were energized. The results are shown in Table 1. From this result, it was found that a large amount of minerals was eluted in the ion generator of the present invention.

[0021]

[Table 1]

(Effect of Sterilization) In Examples 1 and 2, the number of Escherichia coli at the alkaline water discharge port 5 was counted.
The result in Example 1 is shown in FIG. In the figure, a was measured with a liquid diluted to 10 ^-4 with respect to the E. coli stock solution, and hereinafter, b is 10 ^-5 , c is 10 ^-6 , and d is 10 ^-7.
The sterilization effect was measured using a solution diluted to.
In Example 1, the count of E. coli after 10 minutes was extremely low, and was hardly counted after 15 minutes. Although not shown, in Example 2, after 10 minutes, all the concentrations were not counted. on the other hand,
FIG. 7 shows the count result of Escherichia coli in Comparative Example 1. In Comparative Example 1, it can be seen that the degree of sterilization is not sufficient as compared with the Examples of the present invention, as shown in the figure.

[0023]

As described above, in the ion generator of the present invention, the electrolysis of water is sufficient, and a large amount of mineral is eluted,
Moreover, it was found that the sterilization effect was excellent and that it was extremely excellent as an ion generator.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a three-electrode electrolytic cell of the ion generator of the present invention.

2 is an electrolytic cell of the ion generator used in Comparative Example 1. FIG.

3 is an electrolytic cell of the ion generator used in Comparative Example 2. FIG.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing a PH measurement result in Example 1.

5 is a graph showing a PH measurement result in Comparative Example 1. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a graph showing the measurement results of Escherichia coli in Example 1.

FIG. 7 is a graph showing the measurement results of Escherichia coli in Comparative Example 1.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Electrolyzer, 2 ₁ , 2 ₂ , 2 ₃ ... Electrode, 3 ₁ , 3 ₂ ... Electrolytic membrane, 4 ... Mineral source storage, 5 ... Pump, 6 ... Alkaline water drainage port, 7 Acid water drainage port, 8 power supply, 10 middle part.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An ion comprising an electrolytic cell, a water supply channel on one side thereof, an alkaline ionized water discharge channel and an acidic ionized water drainage channel on the other side, and at least three electrodes separated by an electrolytic membrane. In the generator, water passing through at least one discharge passage is separated by an electrolytic membrane, passes through at least two electrodes having different electric potentials, and a mineral source accommodating portion for eluting minerals is installed between them. Ionized water generator. 2. The ionized water generator according to claim 1, wherein water flows parallel to the electrodes in the electrolytic cell. 3. The ionized water generator according to claim 1, wherein a carbon fiber electrode is used as the electrode material. 4. The ionized water generator according to claim 1, wherein carbon fiber is coated with a noble metal as the electrode material. 5. The ionized water generator according to claim 4, wherein carbon fiber is coated with palladium as the electrode material. 6. The ionized water generator according to claim 1, wherein an insoluble electrode is used as the electrode material.