RU217873U1 - REVERSE OSMOSIS ASSEMBLY OF AQUAVENDING APPARATUS - Google Patents

Abstract

The utility model relates to vending machines for drinking water obtained from the water of the public water supply network by purifying it, characterized by the intermittent nature of its functioning, objectively due to the nature of aqua vending. The reverse osmosis unit contains a controlled valve (1), a reverse osmosis membrane (2) with an inlet (3) and outlets for permeate (4) and concentrate (5), a hydraulic resistance (6) for discharging this concentrate into the sewer (8), hydraulic accumulator (9) for permeate taken from outlet (4) of membrane (2), pump (10) for dispensing permeate from accumulator (9) to consumer, controller (11). The controller is electrically connected to the output of the permeate level sensor in the accumulator (9), the power supply circuit of the pump (10), as well as to the control input of the valve (1) for supplying raw water under pressure to the input (3) of the membrane (2). The assembly contains a permeate return pump (12) installed in the body of the aqua vending machine. The input of this pump is hydraulically connected to the output of the accumulator (9). The pump outlet is hydraulically connected through the check valve (13) to the inlet (3) of the membrane (2). The power supply circuit of the pump is connected to the controller (11). EFFECT: increased efficiency of non-chemical cleaning of the membrane. 1 ill.

Description

Field of technology to which the utility model belongs

The utility model relates to aqua vending, namely to vending machines for drinking water obtained from the water of a public water supply network by cleaning it using reverse osmosis, characterized by an intermittent nature of its functioning, objectively due to the nature of aqua vending.

State of the art

The use of reverse osmosis for water purification is well known (https://ru.wikipedia.org./w/index.php?title=Reverse osmosis&stable=0&redirect=no).

The problem of such purification is also known, associated with clogging of the pores of the reverse osmosis membrane with impurities contained in the source water, and the deposition of sediments of these impurities on its surface. There are several reasons for this: these are concentration polarization, adsorption, and gel formation. A solution to this problem is also known, which consists in chemical cleaning of the membrane surface, which consists in the use of a number of chemical reagents, both individually and in various combinations. Such chemical treatment includes recirculation of the chemical agent solution for 20-30 minutes, exposure of this solution for 20-30 minutes, additional recirculation for 15-20 minutes, further washing of the solution from the membrane surface with purified water (see, for example, https: //www.c-o-k.ru/articles/obratnyy-osmos-teoriya-praktika-rekomendacii).

The reason that prevents the technical result obtained in the specified known technical solution, which is provided by the reverse osmosis unit claimed for patenting, is the use of chemical cleaning, which is technologically complex, time-consuming, imposes increased requirements both on the chemical resistance of the membrane to the reagent and on the procedure subsequent removal of the reagent from the membrane (cleaning the membrane from the reagent).

A reverse osmosis unit of an aqua vending apparatus (prototype) is known, containing a controlled valve installed in the body of the aqua vending apparatus, a reverse osmosis membrane with the inlet and outlets of permeate and concentrate, hydraulic resistance for the removal of this concentrate into the sewer, a hydraulic accumulator for temporary accumulation of permeate taken from the corresponding outlet of the membrane, an output pump permeate from the accumulator to the permeate consumer, as well as a controller that is electrically connected to the output of the permeate level sensor in the accumulator, the power supply circuit of the said pump, and also to the control input of the said controlled valve, designed to supply source water under pressure to the membrane inlet (see description of the utility model according to the patent RU No. 206266 U1, IPC C02F 9/00, G07F 13/00, published: 02.09.2021 Bull. No. 25).

The features of a well-known reverse osmosis unit (prototype) that are common with the features of the claimed utility model are the features of the prototype listed above.

The reason that prevents the technical result obtained in the known reverse osmosis unit (prototype), which is provided by the utility model claimed for patenting, is that in the prototype, the membrane is cleaned by flushing through the membrane with an intense flow of washing water, which is taken as the source water sent to the process of flushing into the sewer through the mentioned open valve. This requires a large amount of cleansing water to be discharged into the sewer and is characterized by a low cleaning efficiency due to the purely mechanical effect of the cleansing water flow on the sediment deposits on the membrane surface to be removed.

The technical problem to be solved by the utility model claimed for patenting is the need to increase the efficiency of non-chemical cleaning of the membrane (i.e. cleaning with water) and, as a result, to increase the duration of its (membrane) effective operation.

Disclosure of the essence of the utility model

The technical result, which mediates the solution of this technical problem, is that the membrane is cleaned at each break in its (membrane) standard reverse osmosis operation, while diffusion cleaning is used with an internal (for this membrane) permeate, which is taken from the accumulator and supplied for this purpose. into the membrane, where its diffusion exposure is carried out, which cleans the membrane, and after that this impurity-enriched permeate in the next process of standard reverse osmosis purification is subjected to standard membrane separation into permeate and concentrate.

The technical result is achieved by the fact that the claimed reverse osmosis unit of the aqua vending apparatus contains (Fig. 1) a controlled valve (1) installed in the body of the aqua vending apparatus, a reverse osmosis membrane (2) with an inlet (3) and outputs of permeate (4) and concentrate (5), hydraulic resistance (6) for discharging this concentrate to the sewerage (8), hydraulic accumulator (9) for temporary accumulation of permeate taken from the outlet (4) of the membrane (2), pump (10) for issuing permeate from the accumulator (9) to the permeate consumer, controller ( 11), which is electrically connected to the output of the permeate level sensor in the accumulator (9), the power supply circuit of the pump (10), as well as to the control input of the valve (1), designed to supply source water under pressure to the input (3) of the membrane (2), while this reverse osmosis unit also contains a permeate return pump (12) installed in the body of the aqua-vending apparatus, the inlet of which is hydraulically connected to the outlet of the hydraulic accumulator (9), and the outlet - through the check valve (13) with the inlet (3) of the membrane (2) and the power supply circuit of this pump is connected to the controller (11).

Brief description of the drawings

The drawing (no number) shows a functional diagram of the claimed reverse osmosis unit aqua vending apparatus. In this case, the solid lines show the hydraulic lines (i.e. pipelines), and the dotted lines show the electrical communication lines of the controller 11 with the pumps 10, 12, with the permeate level sensor of the accumulator 9, with the control inputs of the valves 1.7.

Implementation of the utility model

The reverse osmosis unit contains: a controlled valve 1 for supplying source water to the inlet of the unit under pressure, which takes place in the public water supply network; a semi-permeable reverse osmosis membrane 2 with an inlet 3 for raw water entering through valve 1, and outlets for permeate 4 and concentrate 5; hydraulic resistance 6 discharge of the concentrate into the sewer 8; controlled valve 7 for direct removal of water from the membrane 2 to the sewer 8 (i.e. the water that has not passed the reverse osmosis separation into permeate and concentrate, and which is to be discharged to the sewer 8, bypassing the resistance 6); hydraulic accumulator 9 for temporary storage of the permeate reserve and ultraviolet disinfection of this permeate using a source of ultraviolet radiation located in the accumulator 9 (source not shown); pump 10 for issuing permeate to the consumer of permeate from the accumulator 9; the pump 12 for the return flow of permeate from the accumulator 9 to the inlet 3 of the membrane 2 through the check valve 13. At the same time, the assembly also contains a controller 11 for controlling the operation of the assembly in question, so that all controlled valves, pumps and a water level sensor in the accumulator are electrically connected to the controller 11.

Membrane 2 used in aqua vending machines is characterized by relatively low productivity due to economic reasons. At the same time, in aqua vending, which uses water previously purified by filters from the public water supply network as source water, membrane 2 can be used without a booster pump in the case when the water pressure in the public water supply network is sufficient for the operation of membrane 2 and is acceptable from the point of view of its performance. However, in most cases, the specified pressure is either insufficient for the operation of the membrane 2, or sufficient, but gives too little performance of the membrane 2, which makes it advisable to use a booster pump. But even in this case, the performance of the membrane 2, as a rule, is not such that the permeate output to the permeate consumer could be carried out directly from the outlet 4 of the membrane 2, since this would require too much time for the permeate output to the permeate consumer, which necessitates the use of hydraulic accumulator 9 and, accordingly, a sufficiently productive pump 10.

The output of the permeate 4 of the membrane 2 is hydraulically connected to the inlet of the accumulator 9 (usually made in the form of a gravitational accumulator and at the same time containing a source of ultraviolet radiation), the output of which is connected to the pump 10 for issuing permeate to the consumer of the permeate from the accumulator 9.

As for the outlet of the concentrate 5 of the membrane 2, it is hydraulically connected to the sewer 8 through the resistance 6, and in parallel to it (resistance 6) a controlled valve 7 is connected for direct (i.e. bypassing the resistance 6) discharge of the concentrate 5 to the sewer 8 in case ( as provided in the prototype) washing the membrane 2 with a stream of water. The presence of resistance 6 is, as is widely known, a prerequisite for the reverse osmosis operation of membrane 2, and the presence of valve 7 in this node is primarily associated with the function of filling membrane 2 with permeate (internal permeate of the membrane) taken from hydraulic accumulator 9 using pump 12. However, the presence of valve 7 is not mandatory for the possibility of filling membrane 2 with permeate taken from accumulator 9: membrane 2 can also be filled by using a standard reverse osmosis separation of the remaining water in the membrane into permeate and concentrate with the concentrate discharged into the sewer through resistance 6.

The permeate return line from the accumulator 9 to the inlet 3 of the membrane 2 contains a pump 12 (mainly a diaphragm pump) and a check valve 13, which guarantees the impossibility of water movement along this line towards the pump 10.

The operation of the reverse osmosis unit is as follows.

In the period of time preceding the start of operation of the aqua vending apparatus, all pumps of the unit are turned off, all controlled valves are closed, and the hydraulic accumulator 9 is empty.

When the aqua-vending apparatus is switched on, the controller 11 opens valve 1. As a result, the source water (taken from the public water supply network and previously cleaned by the filters of the aqua-vending apparatus) enters under pressure at the inlet 3 of the membrane 2, in which it (the source water) is separated into permeate ( outlet 4 of membrane 2) and concentrate (outlet 5 of membrane 2). In this case, the permeate from outlet 4 enters the accumulator 9 until it is filled, and the concentrate from outlet 5 through the hydraulic resistance 6 enters the sewer 8.

In this regard, it should be noted that a side and inevitable product of any reverse osmosis process is the formation on the inner surface of the membrane 2 of a layer of deposits of molecules of substances of impurities that are contained in the source water and which have not passed through the pores of the membrane 2 and, as a result, "clog" the pores of the membrane , thereby increasing the hydraulic resistance of the membrane, which reduces its performance over time. Hence, the effective cleaning of the membrane with water, which is maximally purified from impurities, is relevant. This is exactly what the diffusion cleaning of the membrane with permeate proposed here allows during interruptions in the aquavending process, based on the periodically repeated diffusion exposure of the internal permeate of the membrane.

Upon filling the accumulator 9, according to the signal received by the controller 11 from the permeate level sensor in the accumulator 9 (the sensor is not shown), the controller 11 closes the valve 1, as a result of which the first break occurs in the operation of the membrane 2, which lasts until the arrival of the first permeate consumer.

At the same time, at the very beginning of this break, the controller 11 turns on the pump 12 and, as an option, opens the valve 7, as a result of which the permeate flows from the accumulator 9 through this line of the permeate return supply to the inlet 3 of the membrane 2 and, entering the membrane 2, displaces the permeate contained in the membrane 2 is the remainder of the source water that exits the membrane 2 through the valve 7 into the sewer 8. In this case, the valve 1 is closed. Thus, the membrane 2 is filled with permeate taken from the hydraulic accumulator 9. However, this filling of the membrane 2 with permeate can be carried out without using valve 7; in this case, the water displaced from the membrane is separated by the membrane into permeate and concentrate, so that the permeate is sent to the accumulator 9, and the concentrate to the sewer 8 through the resistance 6.

At the end of this process of filling the membrane 2 with permeate taken from the accumulator 9 (i.e., the permeate, which is now the internal permeate of the membrane 2), the controller 11 turns off the pump 12 and closes the valve 7 (in the variant of using this valve discussed above). Under such circumstances, further diffusion exposure of this internal permeate of the membrane 2 is carried out during the entire considered break in its operation. This diffusion exposure of the internal permeate of the membrane 2 lies in the fact that this internal permeate remains in the membrane 2 without movement for the entire duration of the interruption in operation of the membrane 2 under consideration. At the same time, since the concentration of impurity molecules in the volume of this internal permeate of the membrane is very small (by definition), and in the near-wall layer of deposits of membrane 2, on the contrary, it is very high (by definition), it is precisely due to such a significant difference in impurity concentrations during the entire remaining time under consideration during the break, impurity molecules spontaneously diffuse from the near-wall layer of membrane 2 into the volume of the internal permeate of membrane 2, as a result of which the near-wall layer of membrane 2 becomes depleted in impurity molecules (i.e., the process of diffusion purification of membrane 2 occurs), while the internal permeate of the membrane, on the contrary, becomes enriched, approaching the most in its composition to the source water or even becoming equivalent to it.

This first interruption in the operation of the unit ends when the first permeate consumer reaches the aqua vending machine and starts the process of issuing permeate to it, and the controller 11, as a result, turns on the pump 10, which discharges permeate from the accumulator 9 to the container of the permeate consumer with an autonomous capacity acceptable for this. In turn, this issue leads to a decrease in the level of permeate in the accumulator 9, which requires appropriate compensation. Then, just for this compensation, at the signal from the permeate level sensor in the accumulator 9, the controller 11 opens the valve 1, thereby starting the normal reverse osmosis operation of the membrane 2. As a result of this normal operation, the initial water enters the input 3 of the membrane 2, the flow of which inevitably with internal (diffusion-enriched) permeate of membrane 2, and all this, figuratively speaking "integrated", water passes further through the usual reverse osmosis separation by membrane 2 into permeate 4 and concentrate 5, so that permeate 4 enters accumulator 9 as usual, and concentrate 5 - into sewer 8 through resistance 6.

After the completion of the processes described above, a second interruption occurs with the same processes as in the first interruption, after which the second permeate consumer reaches the aqua vending apparatus, and so on. Thus, the process of aquavending is characterized by the presence of a sequence of interruptions in the operation of the membrane 2 with an indefinite number of interruptions in this sequence and an indefinite time of each interruption. And at the same time, each break is used for diffusion purification of membrane 2 by diffusion exposure of the internal permeate in membrane 2. At the same time, the high efficiency of such diffusion purification is largely due to the fact that it is carried out in relation to impurity particles on the surface of membrane 2, which are still small on the surface of the membrane 2 and which have not yet had time to properly fix on the surface of the membrane 2, since the process of its diffusion cleaning begins immediately, as soon as the next working period of reverse osmosis preceding this cleaning ends.

Claims (1)

Reverse osmosis unit of the aqua vending apparatus, containing a controlled valve (1) installed in the body of the aqua vending apparatus, a reverse osmosis membrane (2) with an inlet (3) and outlets for permeate (4) and concentrate (5), hydraulic resistance (6) for discharging this concentrate into the sewer ( 8), a hydraulic accumulator (9) for temporary accumulation of permeate taken from the outlet (4) of the membrane (2), a pump (10) for dispensing permeate from the accumulator (9) to the permeate consumer, as well as a controller (11), which is electrically connected to the sensor output the permeate level in the accumulator (9), the power supply circuit of the pump (10), as well as with the control input of the valve (1), designed to supply source water under pressure to the input (3) of the membrane (2), characterized in that it contains a permeate return pump (12) installed in the body of the aqua-vending apparatus, while the inlet of this pump is hydraulically connected to the outlet of the hydraulic accumulator (9), the outlet of this pump is hydraulically connected through the check valve (13) to the inlet (3) of the membrane (2), and the power supply circuit of this pump is connected to the controller (11).

Images