WO2017171406A1

WO2017171406A1 - Water purifier and method for regulating recovery rate of water purifier

Info

Publication number: WO2017171406A1
Application number: PCT/KR2017/003434
Authority: WO
Inventors: 문형민; 윤성한
Original assignee: 코웨이 주식회사
Priority date: 2016-03-29
Filing date: 2017-03-29
Publication date: 2017-10-05
Also published as: KR20170111581A; CN108883352A; KR102490252B1

Abstract

A water purifier according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises: a filtering unit for producing purified water by filtering inflowing water; a TDS measuring unit for measuring the total dissolved solids (TDS) in the water flowing into the filtering unit; a pressure measuring unit for measuring the pressure of the water flowing into the filtering unit; a purified water passage through which the purified water is discharged; a concentrated water passage through which concentrated water filtered by the filtering unit is discharged; a concentrated water flow control valve for controlling the flow rate of the concentrated water discharged through the concentrated water passage; a control unit for adjusting the degree of opening and closing of the concentrated water flow control valve, on the basis of the TDS and the pressure of the water flowing into the filtering unit.

Description

Water purifier and recovery method of water purifier

The present invention relates to a water purifier and a method for adjusting the recovery rate of the water purifier.

In general, the water purifier uses a reverse osmosis filter to remove harmful components such as impurities contained in water.

Such a reverse osmosis filter is capable of removing even fine impurities such as impurities contained in water, environmental hormones, heavy metals, bacteria, etc. using a micro film, and discharges these harmful components to the outside through the concentrated water flow path.

Here, the ratio of the purified water to the water provided by the filter is called a recovery rate. The recovery rate is not used as a purified water but is related to the amount of concentrated water discharged to the outside and the ion removal performance of the reverse osmosis filter. It is very important to.

However, the conventional water purifier always discharges the concentrated water at a constant recovery rate irrespective of the TDS of the water flowing into the filter, and there is a problem that the ion removal performance is remarkably deteriorated when a region having a high TDS or a contaminated water flows in.

In addition, even if simply adjusting the recovery rate according to the TDS, when the differential pressure loss of the flow path occurs, there is a problem that the phenomenon of ion removal performance may decrease.

The present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and provides a water purifier and a method for adjusting the recovery rate by adjusting the concentrated water flow control valve based on the TDS and pressure of the incoming water.

Water purifier according to an embodiment of the present invention, the filter unit for generating purified water by filtering the incoming water, TDS measuring unit for measuring the TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) of the water flowing into the filter unit, the pressure of the water flowing into the filter unit A pressure measuring unit for measuring, a purified water flow path through which the purified water is discharged, a concentrated water flow path through which the concentrated water filtered by the filter unit is discharged, and a concentrated water flow rate control valve controlling a flow rate of the concentrated water discharged through the concentrated water flow path; And a control unit for controlling the opening and closing degree of the concentrated water flow control valve based on the TDS and the pressure of the water flowing into the filter unit.

In one embodiment, the control unit increases the opening degree of the brine flow control valve as the TDS of the water flowing into the filter unit increases, but when the pressure of the water decreases below a predetermined value, the brine flow control valve Can reduce the degree of opening.

Here, the control unit may reduce the opening degree of the concentrated water flow control valve until the pressure of the water reaches the predetermined value.

In addition, the control unit may reduce the opening degree of the concentrated water flow control valve as the TDS of the incoming water decreases.

In one embodiment, the filter unit may include a reverse osmosis membrane filter.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a water purifier may include: a filter unit for filtering purified water to generate purified water; a TDS measuring unit for measuring TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) of the water flowing into the filter unit; A concentrated water flow path through which the concentrated water filtered by the filter unit is discharged, a pressure measuring unit measuring a pressure of the concentrated water, a concentrated water flow control valve controlling a flow rate of the concentrated water discharged through the concentrated water flow path; It includes a control unit for controlling the opening and closing degree of the concentrated water flow control valve based on the TDS of the water flowing into the filter unit and the pressure of the concentrated water.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for adjusting a recovery rate includes a filter unit for filtering purified water to generate purified water, a purified water passage through which the purified water is discharged, and a concentrated water passage through which the filtered water filtered by the filter unit is discharged and the concentrated water is discharged. A method for controlling the recovery rate of a water purifier including a brine flow rate control valve for controlling the flow rate of the brine discharged through the water flow path, the step of blocking the purified water flow path, opening the brine flow path to a predetermined opening degree, And measuring the TDS and the pressure of the water flowing into the filter unit and adjusting the opening and closing degree of the concentrated water flow control valve based on the measured TDS and the pressure of the water.

In one embodiment, adjusting the opening and closing degree of the brine flow control valve based on the measured TDS and pressure of the water increases the opening degree of the brine flow control valve as the TDS of the water flowing into the filter unit increases When the pressure of the water decreases below a predetermined value, the opening degree of the concentrated water flow control valve may be reduced.

Here, adjusting the opening and closing degree of the brine flow control valve based on the measured TDS and pressure of the water may reduce the opening degree of the brine flow control valve as the TDS of the incoming water decreases.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, when the TDS of the incoming water is low, there is an effect of reducing the waste water by adjusting the opening and closing degree of the concentrated water flow control valve to increase the recovery rate.

In addition, when the TDS of the incoming water is high, there is an effect of improving the ion removal performance by adjusting the opening and closing degree of the concentrated water flow control valve based on the TDS and the pressure of the water.

1 is a view for explaining a water purifier according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a graph showing the ion removal rate according to the recovery rate of the water purifier.

3 is a graph showing the pressure change of water according to the change in recovery rate of the water purifier.

4 is a view for explaining a water purifier according to another embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a recovery rate adjusting method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining an embodiment of adjusting the opening and closing degree of the brine flow control valve based on the measured water TDS and the pressure of FIG. 5.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

However, embodiments of the present invention may be modified in various other forms, and the scope of the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described below. In addition, the embodiments of the present invention are provided to more completely explain the present invention to those skilled in the art.

In the drawings referred to in the present invention, components having substantially the same configuration and function will be denoted by the same reference numerals, and the shapes and sizes of the elements in the drawings may be exaggerated for clarity.

1 is a view for explaining a water purifier according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 is a graph showing the ion removal rate according to the change in recovery rate of the water purifier, Figure 3 is a graph showing the pressure change of the water according to the change in recovery rate of the water purifier to be.

1, the water purifier 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is a filter unit 110, TDS measuring unit 120, pressure measuring unit 130, concentrated water flow control valve 140, control unit ( 150).

The filter unit 110 may filter the incoming water to generate purified water. Here, the filter unit 110 may be formed by the first flow path 1 through which water flows into the filter unit 110, the purified water flow path 2 through which the purified water generated by the filter unit 110 is discharged, and the filter unit 110. The filtered concentrated water may be connected to the concentrated water passage 3 through which the concentrated water is discharged. Here, the concentrated water refers to water including the solid material filtered by the filter unit 110 and may be discharged to the outside through the concentrated water flow path (3).

In one embodiment, the filter unit 110 may be a reverse osmosis membrane filter.

Here, the water flowing into the filter unit 110 may be raw water introduced from the outside or water passed through a pretreatment filter (eg, at least one of a sediment filter and a precarbon filter). In addition, a post-processing filter (eg, a post carbon filter) may be disposed at the rear end of the filter unit 110, that is, at the rear end of the purified water flow path 2. Here, the integer may be provided to the user through the post-processing filter or as it is.

The TDS measuring unit 120 may measure the TDS of the water flowing into the filter unit 110 through the first flow path 1. Here, the TDS measurement unit 120 may output the measured TDS to the control unit 150.

The pressure measuring unit 130 may measure the pressure of water introduced into the filter unit 110 through the first flow path 1.

Here, the pressure measuring unit 130 may output the measured pressure to the control unit 150. Here, the pressure measuring unit 130 may be any well-known pressure sensor as long as it can measure the change in the pressure of the water flowing into the filter unit 110.

The brine flow rate control valve 140 may control the flow rate of the brine discharged through the brine flow path 3 by the control of the controller 150.

In one embodiment, the brine flow rate control valve 140 in accordance with a control signal input from a valve (not shown) and the control unit 150 is installed to control the flow rate of the brine discharged through the brine flow path (3) It may include a motor (not shown) for adjusting the opening and closing degree of the valve.

The controller 150 may control the overall operation of the water purifier 100. In one embodiment, the controller 150 may include at least one processing unit and a memory. Here, the processing unit may include, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a microprocessor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), and the like. It may have a plurality of cores. The memory may be volatile memory, nonvolatile memory, or a combination thereof.

The controller 150 may adjust the recovery rate by adjusting the opening and closing degree of the concentrated water flow control valve 140. Here, the recovery rate means a ratio of the flow rate of the purified water discharged to the purified water flow path 2 with respect to the flow rate of the water flowing into the filter unit 110.

The controller 150 may first adjust the opening and closing degree of the brine flow rate control valve 140 according to the TDS of the water flowing into the filter unit 110.

Specifically, the control unit 150 may increase the opening degree of the brine flow rate control valve 140 as the TDS of the water flowing into the filter unit 110 increases, on the contrary, the brine flow rate control as the TDS of the water decreases. The opening degree of the valve 140 can be reduced.

In other words, if the TDS of the water flowing into the filter unit 110 is high, the controller 150 may reduce the recovery rate by increasing the opening degree of the concentrated water flow control valve 140 to increase the ion removal rate, and the filter unit 110. If the TDS of the water flowing into the low), the recovery rate can be increased by reducing the opening degree of the concentrated water flow control valve 140 to reduce the waste of the waste water (concentrated water discharged to the outside).

However, referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, in order to reduce the recovery rate by increasing the opening degree of the brine flow rate control valve 140 in order to increase the ion removal rate, the ion removal rate is rather reduced at some point below the recovery rate. This is because when the recovery rate is reduced more than necessary due to the differential pressure loss of the first flow path 1 and thus the pump performance curve, the ion removal rate is reduced because the operating pressure on the first flow path 1 is lowered.

In order to solve this problem, the controller 150 increases the TDS of the water flowing into the filter unit 110 to increase the opening degree of the concentrated water flow control valve 140, but the pressure of the water decreases below a predetermined value. In this case, it is reported that the differential pressure loss occurs, it is possible to reduce the opening degree of the concentrated water flow control valve 140.

In other words, when the TDS of the water flowing into the filter unit 110 increases, the controller 150 may increase the ion removal rate by decreasing the recovery rate by increasing the opening degree of the concentrated water flow control valve 140. Here, the controller 150 senses the pressure of the water flowing into the filter unit 110 and when the pressure of the water is less than the predetermined pressure, the concentrated water flow control valve 140 so that the pressure of the water is more than the predetermined pressure You can readjust the degree of opening.

4, the water purifier 200 according to another embodiment of the present invention is a filter unit 210, TDS measuring unit 220, pressure measuring unit 230, concentrated water flow control valve 240 and the control unit 250.

4 is basically the same as the embodiment of FIG. 1, but a pressure measuring unit 230 for detecting a differential pressure loss is disposed in front of the brine flow rate control valve 240 in the brine flow path 3. There is a difference in that.

Other configurations and recovery rate adjusting methods are the same as the above-described basic embodiments, and the rest of the description will be omitted.

Hereinafter, a recovery rate adjusting method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 6. However, the following recovery rate adjusting method is performed in the water purifier described above with reference to FIG. 1, and thus descriptions identical to or corresponding to the above description will not be repeated.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a recovery rate adjusting method according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 6 is a step of adjusting the opening and closing degree of the concentrated water flow control valve based on the measured TDS and pressure of the water of FIG. A flowchart for explaining an embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 5, first, the controller 150 blocks the purified water flow passage 2 and controls the concentrated water flow control valve 140 to open the concentrated water flow passage 3 to a predetermined opening degree (S100).

Next, the TDS and the pressure of the water flowing into the filter unit 110 are measured using the TDS measuring unit 120 and the pressure measuring unit 130 (S200).

Next, the control unit 150 may adjust the recovery rate by adjusting the opening and closing degree of the concentrated water flow control valve 140 based on the measured TDS and pressure of the water (S300).

In one embodiment, the step (S300) of adjusting the opening and closing of the concentrated water flow control valve based on the measured TDS and pressure of the water, referring to Figure 6, first, the control unit 150 is the TDS measurement unit 120 When the TDS of the water measured through) is increased (S310), the opening degree of the concentrated water flow control valve 140 may be increased (S320). Here, when the pressure of the water decreases below the predetermined pressure (S340), the controller 150 may reduce the opening degree of the concentrated water flow control valve 140 until the predetermined pressure reaches the predetermined pressure (S350).

On the contrary, when the TDS of the water is reduced (S310), the controller 150 may reduce the opening degree of the brine flow control valve 140 according to the degree of the TDS of the water reduced (S330).

The present invention described above is not limited to the above-described embodiment and the accompanying drawings, but is defined by the claims below, and the configuration of the present invention may be modified in various ways without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be changed and modified.

Claims

A filter unit for filtering purified water to generate purified water;

TDS measuring unit for measuring the TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) of the water flowing into the filter unit;

A pressure measuring unit measuring a pressure of water flowing into the filter unit;

A purified water passage through which the purified water is discharged;

A concentrated water passage through which the concentrated water filtered by the filter unit is discharged;

A concentrated water flow control valve for controlling a flow rate of the concentrated water discharged through the concentrated water flow path; And

A control unit for controlling the opening and closing degree of the concentrated water flow control valve based on the TDS and the pressure of the water flowing into the filter unit; Water purifier comprising a.
The method of claim 1, wherein the control unit,

The water purifier which increases the opening degree of the brine flow rate control valve as the TDS of the water flowing into the filter unit increases, but reduces the opening degree of the brine flow rate control valve when the pressure of the water decreases below a preset value.
The method of claim 2, wherein the control unit,

Purifier for reducing the opening degree of the concentrated water flow control valve until the pressure of the water reaches the predetermined value.
The method of claim 1, wherein the control unit,

The water purifier decreases the opening degree of the brine flow rate control valve as the TDS of the incoming water decreases.
The method of claim 1,

The filter unit comprises a reverse osmosis membrane filter.
A filter unit for filtering purified water to generate purified water;

TDS measuring unit for measuring the TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) of the water flowing into the filter unit;

A purified water passage through which the purified water is discharged;

A concentrated water passage through which the concentrated water filtered by the filter unit is discharged;

A pressure measuring unit measuring a pressure of the concentrated water;

A concentrated water flow control valve for controlling a flow rate of the concentrated water discharged through the concentrated water flow path; And

A control unit for controlling the opening and closing degree of the concentrated water flow control valve based on the TDS of the water flowing into the filter unit and the pressure of the concentrated water; Water purifier comprising a.
The method of claim 6, wherein the control unit,

As the TDS of the water flowing into the filter unit increases, the opening degree of the concentrated water flow control valve is increased, but when the pressure of the concentrated water decreases below a predetermined value, the opening degree of the concentrated water flow control valve is decreased. water purifier.
The method of claim 7, wherein the control unit,

Purifier for reducing the opening degree of the brine flow control valve until the pressure of the brine is the predetermined value.
The method of claim 8, wherein the control unit,

The water purifier decreases the opening degree of the brine flow rate control valve as the TDS of the incoming water decreases.
The method of claim 6,

The filter unit comprises a reverse osmosis membrane filter.
The flow rate of the filter unit for filtering the incoming water to generate purified water, the purified water flow path through which the purified water is discharged, the concentrated water flow path through which the concentrated water filtered by the filter unit is discharged, and the concentrated water discharged through the concentrated water flow path In the recovery rate control method of the water purifier comprising a concentrated water flow rate control valve,

Blocking the purified water flow path and opening the concentrated water flow path to a predetermined opening degree;

Measuring TDS and pressure of water flowing into the filter unit; And

Adjusting the opening and closing degree of the concentrated water flow control valve based on the measured water TDS and pressure; Recovery rate control method comprising a.
The method of claim 11,

Adjusting the opening and closing degree of the concentrated water flow control valve based on the measured TDS and pressure of the water,

As the TDS of the water flowing into the filter unit increases, the opening degree of the brine flow rate control valve is increased, but when the water pressure decreases below a preset value, the recovery rate control to decrease the opening degree of the brine flow rate control valve is adjusted. Way.
The method of claim 12,

Adjusting the opening and closing degree of the concentrated water flow control valve based on the measured TDS and pressure of the water,

Recovery rate control method for reducing the opening degree of the concentrated water flow control valve as the TDS of the incoming water decreases.