KR20150030397A - System and method for treatment of ballast water - Google Patents

Abstract

In an embodiment of the present invention, provided is a ballast water treating system, comprising a concentration water treating apparatus which concentrates some seawater received via a pump and accordingly stores the same as a concentration water; and a ballast water treating apparatus which stores residue seawater except for the concentration water or the reside seawater with use of chlorine ion generated by electrolyzing at least one among the concentration water in a ballast tank as a ballast water.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a ballast water treatment system,

The present invention relates to a system and method for treating ballast water, and more particularly, to a system and method for treating ballast water, which comprises concentrating and storing seawater for use in a low salt area at a high concentration to reduce the capacity of a tank for storing seawater, And more particularly, to a system and method for treating ballast water.

In order to ensure the stability and balance of ships, ships have ballast tanks. In the absence of cargo, a certain amount of seawater flows into the ballast tanks to maintain balance of ships. Here, the water loaded in the ballast tank is generally referred to as ballast water.

Ballast water is the weight to be loaded to control the draft and trim of the ship. It is necessary to maintain the equilibrium of the ship to improve the stability and to ensure that the propeller and rudder are operated efficiently in water Role.

Ballast water taken from harbors or waterways or from the ocean to take in seawater or fresh water and loaded into ballast tanks includes various marine organisms contained in seawater or fresh water taken up with ballast water and transferred to ballast tanks of ships . It is estimated that the number of ballast waters moving on the oceans around the world is about 10 billion tons per year. However, since ballast water contains various marine organisms existing in seawater in the area to which ballast water has flowed, if the ballast water is discharged from the other area after the ship has moved, marine life in other areas threatens the ecosystem of the area A problem arises.

In the United States, the National Invasive species Act was enacted in 1996, requiring the management and control of ballast water as an intruder, and mandating the management and control of ballast water. In Australia, the quarantine law was amended to define ballast water as an import cargo subject to quarantine, . In addition, the International Maritime Organization concluded an international agreement in February 2004, requiring the ballast disinfection treatment to be carried on board from 2009 onwards, which prohibits entry of the vessel in violation.

In accordance with the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) "Convention on the Control of Shipboard Ballast Water", in 2009, Korea has also been controlling the discharge of ballast water to prevent the influx of foreign aquatic organisms on the coast. Thus, various methods for treating ship ballast water have been developed. For example, there is a method of filtering seawater flowing through a filter to treat micro-marine organisms in the ballast tank, ultraviolet ray treatment, ozone treatment, electrolysis, and input of chemicals into the inflowed seawater.

Among them, the electrolysis method may not be enough to electrolyze seawater to produce chlorine, to treat seawater through the generated chlorine, or to obtain enough salt to produce chlorine at low salinity. In order to solve this problem, we usually store seawater and use seawater stored in the low salt area. This will be described later with reference to FIG.

1 is a view for explaining a conventional ballast water treatment system.

1, in the conventional ballast water treatment system 1, the pump 4 takes seawater through the sea-chest 3 and electrolyzes it in the ballast water processor 5 to generate chlorine , The ballast water is disinfected and stored in the ballast tank (6). At this time, in the low salt area, salt may not be obtained enough to produce chlorine, and a separate storage tank (7) is used to store seawater in the high salt area. Valves 8 and 9 are connected to two pipes connected to the storage tank 7, respectively, in order to supply seawater having high salinity to the seawater introduced into the ballast water treatment device 5.

However, the conventional ballast water treatment system 1 shown in Fig. 1 can obtain a sufficient amount of salt to produce chlorine even at a low salt concentration. However, since the size of the storage tank 7 for storing seawater is large, The problem of occupying volume still exists.

Korean Public Patent No. 2012-0035305 (April 16, 2012 release)

Disclosure of Invention Technical Problem [8] Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for treating ballast water which can reduce the capacity of a tank for storing seawater by concentrating and storing seawater for use in a low-

It is another object of the present invention to provide a ballast water treatment system and method capable of effectively treating ballast water even in a low salt area by storing and storing seawater at a high concentration.

The problems to be solved by the present invention are not limited to the above-mentioned problems, and other matters not mentioned can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a ballast water treatment system comprising: a concentrated water treatment device for concentrating a part of seawater introduced through a pump and storing the concentrate as concentrated water; And a ballast water treatment device for storing the remaining seawater as ballast water in the ballast tank using chlorine ions generated by electrolyzing at least one of the seawater other than the concentrated seawater or the concentrated water.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for treating ballast water, comprising: concentrating a part of seawater flowing through a pump to generate concentrated water; Storing the concentrated water; Detecting the salinity of the sea in the sea where the ship is sailing; Electrolyzing the concentrated water to produce chlorine ions when the salinity is below a reference salinity; And storing the seawater as ballast water in the ballast tank using the chlorine ion.

Other specific details of the invention are included in the detailed description and drawings.

According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the capacity of a tank for storing seawater by concentrating and storing seawater for use in a low salt area at a high concentration.

In addition, it is possible to concentrate and store seawater at a high concentration to efficiently treat the ballast water in the low salt area.

1 is a view for explaining a conventional ballast water treatment system.
2 is a configuration diagram of a ballast water treatment system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a configuration diagram of a ballast water treatment system according to another embodiment of the present invention.
4A and 4B are diagrams for explaining the principle of concentration of the concentrated water treatment apparatus of the ballast water treatment system of FIGS. 2 and 3, respectively.
5 is a flowchart of a ballast water treatment method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The advantages and features of the present invention and the manner of achieving them will become apparent with reference to the embodiments described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Is provided to fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art, and the invention is only defined by the scope of the claims. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout the specification.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein may be used in a sense commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Also, commonly used predefined terms are not ideally or excessively interpreted unless explicitly defined otherwise.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a configuration diagram of a ballast water treatment system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2, the ballast water treatment system 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention is a system in which seawater taken to the pump 70 through the hour-chest 60 is treated with ballast water to the ballast tank 80 A ballast water treatment device 200, a salinity sensing device 300, a valve control device 400, and the like, for storing the stored water.

The concentrated water treatment apparatus 100 concentrates a part of the seawater flowing through the pump 70 and stores it as concentrated water. Specifically, the concentrated water treatment apparatus 100 is provided independently of the ballast water treatment apparatus 200, and a part of the seawater flowing into the ballast water treatment apparatus 200 through the pump 70 is taken out separately to be used in the low- Concentrate and store in case. That is, in order to perform sterilization treatment using chlorine, relatively high concentration of salt water is required than chlorine, and this need is solved by making concentrated salt water in the concentrated water treatment apparatus 100. For example, by using the concentrated water concentrated and stored in the equatorial region through the pump 70 through the pump 70, it is possible to prevent waste of space in the tank storing the concentrated water.

The ballast water treatment apparatus 200 sterilizes the seawater using chlorine ions generated by electrolyzing the seawater and stores the sterilized seawater into the ballast tank 80 as ballast water. The ballast water treatment apparatus 200 electrolyzes the concentrated water concentrated through the seawater or the concentrated water treatment apparatus 100 that has been drawn into the ballast water treatment apparatus 200 through the pump 70. For example, if the ship sails in the high salt area, salt water of high concentration can be immediately obtained. Therefore, the seawater is taken out through the pump 70 to electrolyze a part of the salt, and the pump 70 The seawater in the high-salt waters flowing through it is sterilized. In addition, if the ship sails in the low salt area, it needs a high concentration of salt water, receives the concentrated water from the concentrated water treatment apparatus 100, electrolyzes the concentrated water, or mixes the low- And sterilizing the seawater in the low salt area flowing through the pump 70 with the chlorine component obtained by electrolysis. That is, electrolytic seawater is appropriately electrolyzed in accordance with the salinity concentration of the sea in which the ship is sailing, thereby obtaining chlorine components, and sterilizing the seawater flowing through the pump 70 with the obtained chlorine components, And to take the water to the ballast tank (60).

The salinity sensing device 300 is a device for measuring the salinity of seawater. Specifically, the salinity sensing device 300 acquires the seawater 51 in the sea area where the ship is sailing and analyzes it to calculate the salinity. The salinity of the seawater 51 in the sea area is calculated by the salinity sensing device 300 to determine whether or not the concentrated water of the concentrated water treatment device 100 is used. For example, when the salinity of the seawater 51 in the sea area exceeds the predetermined salinity, it is not necessary to use the concentrated water since the chlorine component can be obtained from the sea water 51 in the sea area flowing through the pump 70 will be. However, when the salinity of the seawater 51 in the sea area of the sailing does not exceed the predetermined salinity, it is difficult to obtain enough chlorine components from the seawater 51 in the sailing area flowing through the pump 70. Therefore, ), And electrolyzed to obtain a chlorine component.

The valve control device 400 controls valves installed in piping connected between respective devices such as the ship chest 60, the ballast tank 80, the concentrated water treatment device 100, and the ballast water treatment device 200 . For example, when the concentrated water of the concentrated water treatment apparatus 100 is equal to or less than the reference amount, the valve control apparatus 400 opens the first valve 412 to be introduced into the seawater by the concentrated water treatment apparatus 100, The case 412 is closed. When the seawater is highly chlorinated to such an extent that chlorine can be produced in the ballast water treatment apparatus 200, the valve control apparatus 400 closes the second valve 414 so that the concentrated water can be discharged from the concentrated water treatment apparatus 100 The second valve 414 is opened to allow the concentrated water treatment apparatus 100 to flow the concentrated water to the ballast water treatment apparatus 200. The second valve 414 is opened when the seawater is low in salinity.

3 is a configuration diagram of a ballast water treatment system according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The ballast water treatment system 15 according to another embodiment of the present invention is a system for treating seawater to be taken into the pump 70 through the time chest 60 by treating the ballast tank 80 with ballast water, A ballast water treatment apparatus 200 including a concentrated water treatment apparatus 100 including a concentrated section 110 and a concentrated water tank 120, a ballast water treatment section 210 and a sea water filtration section 220, A salinity sensing device 300 including a salinity analyzer 310 and a salinity analyzer 320 and a valve controller 400 including a valve controller 420 and first and second valves 412 and 414.

The concentrated water treatment apparatus 100 further includes a seawater concentrator 110 for concentrating a part of the seawater incoming through the pump 70 and a concentrated water tank 120 for storing the concentrated water.

The seawater concentrating unit 110 can concentrate low-salt seawater into high-salt concentrated water using a reverse osmosis system or the like, and various enrichment methods that can be adopted by those skilled in the art besides the reverse osmosis system are within the scope of the present invention something to do. It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the seawater concentrating unit 110 can concentrate the seawater to a concentration of about 30%, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

The concentrated water tank 120 is a tank for separately storing the concentrated water, which is concentrated seawater in the seawater concentration unit 110, and is disposed independently of the ballast tank 80. At this time, since the seawater can be concentrated at a high concentration by the seawater thickener 110, the volume of the concentrated water tank 120 can be reduced. Specifications such as the size and structure of the concentrated water tank 120 may be appropriately determined in relation to the processing capacity of the ballast water treatment apparatus 200. [

The ballast water treatment apparatus 200 includes a ballast water treatment unit 210 for generating chlorine ions and sterilizing the seawater introduced into the ballast tank 80 using the generated ballast water and a seawater filtration unit 200 for filtering the seawater flowing through the pump, (220).

The ballast water treatment unit 210 electrolyzes seawater or concentrated water immediately obtained through the pump 70 or electrolyzes mixed water obtained by mixing the seawater and the concentrated water and uses the chlorine ions generated by the electrolysis Sterilizes the seawater flowing through the pump 70. [ The sodium chloride (NaCl) component contained in seawater, concentrated water, or mixed water is converted into sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) or hypochlorous acid (HClO) through electrolysis, and the sterilization disinfectant removes marine organisms do. At this time, the indirect type and the ballast treatment unit 210, in which the ballast treatment unit 210 is indirectly connected to the flow path made up of the body cavity 60, the pump 70, and the ballast tank 80, It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced.

The seawater filtration unit 220 is installed after the pump 70 to filter foreign matter, microorganisms, and the like from the seawater flowing into the ballast treatment unit 210. Thus, the microorganisms can be primarily filtered by the sea water filtration unit 220, and the amount of chlorine for treating the ballast water can be reduced. Thus, the effect of reducing the volume of the concentrated water tank 120 can be obtained.

The salinity sensing device 300 senses the salinity of the sea in the sea where the ship is navigated. The salinity sensing device 300 includes a sensor unit 310 and a sensor unit 310 for measuring salinity by contacting the seawater 51 of the sea where the ship is sailing, And a salinity analyzer 320 for analyzing the salinity obtained from the salinity analyzer 320 to calculate the salinity of the seawater.

The sensor unit 310 directly contacts the seawater 51 in the sea area where the ship is navigated to check the salinity of the seawater. The sensor unit 310 may use only one sensor, but it is preferable that a plurality of unit sensors directly contact the seawater 51 of the sea where the ship is sailing for accurate measurement. For example, more accurate salinity can be obtained by acquiring the salinity of seawater at various places such as front and rear, both sides where the ship sails.

The salinity analyzer 320 calculates the salinity of the seawater 51 in the sea area from the salinity data acquired from the sensor unit 310. At this time, the salinity analyzer 320 can receive more data from the sensor unit 310 and analyze it to calculate the salinity of the seawater, so that more accurate salinity can be calculated.

The valve control apparatus 400 includes a first valve 412 which branches off to the sea water concentration section 110 and blocks the flow of the flowing seawater and a second valve 412 which concentrates the concentrated water flowing from the concentrated water tank 120 to the ballast water treatment apparatus 200 side And a valve control unit 420 for controlling the opening and closing of the first and second valves 412 and 414.

More specifically, the valve control unit 420 opens the first valve 412 when the concentrated water storage amount of the concentrated water tank 120 is equal to or less than the reference storage amount, and when the concentrated water storage amount of the concentrated water tank 120 exceeds the reference storage amount The first valve 412 is closed to branch off to the seawater thickener 110 side to block and allow the inflow of the flowing seawater.

The valve control unit 420 opens the second valve 414 when the salinity of the sea area measured by the salinity measuring device 300 is less than or equal to the reference salinity and when the salinity of the sea water exceeds the reference salinity, The flow of concentrated water flowing from the concentrated water tank 120 to the ballast water treatment apparatus 200 side is blocked and allowed. That is, the user measures the salinity of the seawater 51 in the sea where the ship is sailing, introduces the concentrated water into the ballast water treatment apparatus 200, and adjusts the amount of the concentrated water according to the salinity of the seawater.

Figs. 4A and 4B are views for explaining the principle of concentration of the concentrated water treatment apparatus of the ballast water treatment system of Figs. 2 and 3, respectively.

As described above, there are various methods for concentrating seawater in the concentrated water treatment apparatus 200, but a reverse osmosis method using a membrane can be adopted. This is because reverse osmosis is the least energy consuming and easy to operate.

4A and 4B, the seawater concentrating unit 110 includes a housing 115 capable of receiving seawater therein and an osmosis membrane 117 separating the housing 115 into two areas A and B, . ≪ / RTI > When an osmosis membrane 117 serving as a membrane is disposed in one region A of the two regions and clean water in the other region B in the middle region thereof, Move. However, when pressure is applied to the upper part of seawater, water moves from area A to area B by pressure. In this way, the seawater is concentrated and the concentrated water is stored in the concentrated water tank 120. The reverse osmosis method using such a thin film has an advantage that energy consumption is small and operation is easy

5 is a flowchart of a ballast water treatment method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, concentrated water is generated by concentrating a part of the seawater flowing through the pump (S110), stored concentrated water (S120), sensing the salinity of the sea in the sea where the ship is sailing (S130) If the salinity is below the reference salinity (S140, Yes), the concentrated water is electrolyzed (S150) to generate chlorine ions (S160). At this time, if the salinity of the sea water exceeds the reference salinity (S140, No), the sea water in the sea where the ship is sailing is electrolyzed (S155) to generate chlorine ions (S160). Thereafter, the seawater is sterilized using chlorine ions (S170), and the sterilized seawater is stored in the ballast tank as ballast water (S180).

In low salt waters such as polar regions, the salt concentration of seawater is low, so it is difficult to obtain enough chlorine to disinfect seawater. However, by concentrating and storing seawater to obtain a desired amount of salt, the inefficient It will be possible to prevent waste of space and to utilize BWTS (BALLAST WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM) in low salt area for efficient operation.

While the present invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be practical exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, You will understand. It is therefore to be understood that the above-described embodiments are illustrative in all aspects and not restrictive.

10: Ballast water treatment system
100: Concentrated water treatment device
200: Ballast water treatment system
300: Salinity sensor
400: Valve control device

Claims (10)

A concentrated water treatment device for concentrating a part of the seawater flowing through the pump and storing the concentrate as concentrated water; And
And a ballast water treatment system for storing the remaining seawater as ballast water in the ballast tank using chlorine ions generated by electrolyzing at least one of the seawater other than the concentrated seawater or the concentrated water, . The method according to claim 1,
Further comprising a salinity sensing device for sensing seawater salinity in the sea area of the vessel sailing. 3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the salinity sensing apparatus includes a sensor unit for measuring salinity by contacting the seawater of the sea where the ship is sailing, and a salinity analyzer for analyzing the salinity obtained from the sensor unit to calculate the salinity of the seawater. 3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the concentrated water processing apparatus includes a seawater concentrating unit for concentrating a part of the seawater and a concentrated water tank for storing the concentrated water. 5. The method of claim 4,
Further comprising: a first valve for shutting off and allowing inflow of seawater branched to the seawater concentrator side and for allowing flow of concentrated water flowing from the concentrated water tank to the ballast water treatment apparatus side; Water treatment system. 6. The method of claim 5,
And a valve control unit for controlling opening and closing of the first and second valves. The method according to claim 6,
Wherein the valve control unit opens the first valve when the concentrated water storage amount of the concentrated water tank is equal to or less than the reference storage amount and closes the first valve when the concentrated water storage amount of the concentrated water tank exceeds the reference storage amount, Water treatment system. The method according to claim 6,
Wherein the valve control unit opens the second valve when the seawater salinity in the sea area is less than or equal to the reference salinity and closes the second valve when the sea salt salinity in the sea area exceeds the reference salinity. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the ballast water treatment apparatus further comprises a ballast water treatment section for generating the chlorine ion to sterilize the remaining seawater and a seawater filtration section for filtering seawater flowing through the pump. Concentrating a part of the seawater flowing through the pump to generate concentrated water;
Storing the concentrated water;
Detecting the salinity of the sea in the sea where the ship is sailing;
Electrolyzing the concentrated water to produce chlorine ions when the salinity is below a reference salinity; And
And storing the seawater as ballast water in the ballast tank using the chlorine ion.

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