초록 ▼

A self contained water purification process system uses a self cleaning, self sanitizing reverse osmosis unit for reliably producing purified water, storing the water, and distributing it to a central supply piping system while maintaining the integrity of the purified water. Make-up water is prepar

A self contained water purification process system uses a self cleaning, self sanitizing reverse osmosis unit for reliably producing purified water, storing the water, and distributing it to a central supply piping system while maintaining the integrity of the purified water. Make-up water is prepared for reverse osmosis purification by means of staged conventional filtration and chlorine removal. The prepared make-up water is then fed into one or more reverse osmosis modules by a pump at a high velocity and pressure. About 85 percent of the make-up water exits the module as purified water. All of the water not passing through the reverse osmosis membranes returns to the suction end of the pump where it blends with incoming make-up water except for a small portion that is discharged to a waste drain. The high velocity flow maintains a shear effect within the modules to prevent a sediment deposition and biofilm from occurring on the membranes and increases the efficiency of water usage. During an automatic unattended cleaning sanitizing cycle, the recycled water is diverted through an injector which draws cleaning chemical into the stream.

대표청구항 ▼

[ We claim:] [1.] In a water purification system including a reverse osmosis (RO) unit having at least one RO membrane, a source of prepared make-up water which has been prepared by filtering and dechlorinating, a make-up water supply conduit connected to the make-up water source, a pump having an i

[ We claim:] [1.] In a water purification system including a reverse osmosis (RO) unit having at least one RO membrane, a source of prepared make-up water which has been prepared by filtering and dechlorinating, a make-up water supply conduit connected to the make-up water source, a pump having an inlet side connected to the make-up water supply conduit and an outlet side connected to a feed side of the RO membrane, a permeate line connected to a permeate side of the RO membrane for conducting purified water from the RO unit, a storage system connected to receive purified water from the permeate line, a concentrate line connected to the feed side of the RO membrane for conducting concentrate from the RO unit, a recycling line connected to supply a portion of concentrate from the condensate line to join with water from the source of make-up water at the inlet side of the pump, and a reject line connected to conduct another portion of the concentrate from the concentrate line to drain, the improvement comprising:means regulating the flow rate through the recycling line relative to the flow rate through the reject line such that the recycled concentrate flow rate significantly exceeds the permeate flow rate so as to scour the semipermeable membrane with a high velocity flow of concentrate during a purification cycle,a chemical injection system including a chemical injection conduit for conducting concentrate from the concentrate line to the inlet side of the pump separately from the portion recycled through the recycling line, a source of chemical for cleaning the membrane and an injector connected to inject a controlled flow of chemical into the chemical injection conduit during a chemical injection cycle,a purge conduit connected to supply purified water from the storage system to the inlet side of the pump during a purge cycle and during said chemical injection cycle,a flush conduit connected to dump concentrate from the concentrate line to drain during said purge cycle and during said chemical injection cycle,a plurality of automatically controllable valves arranged to selectively control the flow through said conduits, anda programmable logic controller connected to selectively control said automatically controllable valves to provide at least the purification cycle, the purge cycle, and the chemical injection cycle.