Combination membrane/biolytic filtration
First Claim
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1. A wastewater treatment system comprising:
- an aerobic compost bed;
an inlet configured to supply wastewater to said aerobic compost bed;
a membrane filter device including one or more hollow, permeable membranes including walls with feed sides and filtrate sides, the feed sides being in fluid communication with said aerobic compost bed;
a pump coupled to said membrane filter device, said pump being selectively operable to provide a filtration operation by producing a pressure differential across the walls of said membranes to cause flow of feed liquid from the aerobic compost bed to the feed sides of the membrane walls and withdrawal of filtrate liquid from the filtrate sides of said membrane walls; and
a pressure responsive valve in fluid communication with said pump, and configured to reverse the pressure differential applied to said membranes walls and to close in response to fluid pressure being applied to a control port.
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Abstract
Described herein are methods and systems for combination membrane/biolytic filtration. In one embodiment a filtration system is operated under suction. The arrangement includes a feed tan (5) having a smaller filtrate vessel (6) positioned therein. The region within, the feed tank (5) not occupied by the filtrate vessel (6) is partially filled with layers of decomposing and decomposed solid organic waste material to form an aerobic filter bed (7) of the type used in biolytic filtration as described above. A further module vessel (8) is mounted within the filtrate vessel (6) to form a membrane chamber (9) containing a membrane filtration module (10).
54 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A wastewater treatment system comprising:
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an aerobic compost bed; an inlet configured to supply wastewater to said aerobic compost bed; a membrane filter device including one or more hollow, permeable membranes including walls with feed sides and filtrate sides, the feed sides being in fluid communication with said aerobic compost bed; a pump coupled to said membrane filter device, said pump being selectively operable to provide a filtration operation by producing a pressure differential across the walls of said membranes to cause flow of feed liquid from the aerobic compost bed to the feed sides of the membrane walls and withdrawal of filtrate liquid from the filtrate sides of said membrane walls; and a pressure responsive valve in fluid communication with said pump, and configured to reverse the pressure differential applied to said membranes walls and to close in response to fluid pressure being applied to a control port. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of treating wastewater comprising:
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forming and maintaining an aerobic compost bed in a feed vessel; feeding wastewater onto the aerobic compost bed; causing said wastewater to filter through the aerobic compost bed;
controlling operation of a pump with a fluid level switch located in the feed vessel;removing filtered wastewater from the aerobic compost bed with the pump; applying the removed filtered wastewater to a feed side of a membrane filter; and withdrawing treated wastewater from a filtrate side of said membrane filter. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
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19. A method of operating a wastewater treatment system comprising:
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providing a wastewater treatment system comprising a pressure responsive valve; dropping a fluid pressure within a filtrate vessel during a filtration operation; closing the pressure responsive valve during the filtration operation, the closing of the pressure responsive valve causing a fluid pressure at a first port of a directional control valve to exceed a fluid pressure at a second port of the directional control valve as the fluid pressure within the filtrate vessel drops; flowing filtrate from a membrane filter device comprising one or more hollow, permeable membranes including walls having feed sides in fluid communication with an aerobic compost bed through the first port of the directional control valve and an outlet port of the directional control valve and into the filtrate vessel; disabling a fluid pump when a feed liquid level in the aerobic compost bed falls below a first predetermined level; releasing pressure from the pressure responsive valve in response to the disabling of the pump, the release of the pressure opening the pressure responsive valve; enabling the fluid pump when the feed liquid level within the aerobic compost bed rises above a second predetermined level; and applying a fluid pressure to the second port of the directional control valve which exceeds the pressure at the first port of the directional control valve in response to the enabling of the fluid pump, the application of the fluid pressure to the second port of the directional control valve causing the outlet port of the directional control valve to close and filtrate liquid to flow to filtrate sides of the membranes of the membrane filter device from the filtrate vessel through the second and first ports of the directional control valve. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21)
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Specification