Abstract: A method and apparatus for treating contaminated stormwater runoff from roads and adjacent lands. A multi-stage and self-contained integrated module is designed to collect the first flush of stormwater runoff (which contains the majority of pollutants) and to treat the pollutants using sedimentation, filtration and constructed wetlands. The apparatus is mass-produced to provide standardized hydrologic controls, important to the reliability of the constructed wetland component of the apparatus.Raw stormwater enters the central sedimentation chamber of the apparatus which is divided into multiple segments designed to provide a series of sedimentation/filtration chambers. At least one chamber is provided with a removable filter bulkhead. Effluent from the final sedimentation chamber is discharged to the constructed wetland system which surrounds the central sedimentation tank.

Abstract: The liquid purification system of the present invention has a double-tank structure comprising an inner tank and an outer tank that are in communication with one another so that either one of the microfiltration means and the adsorption means may be accommodated is in the inner tank, and the microfiltration means or the adsorption means that is not accommodated in the inner tank may be accommodated in the outer tank, with the disinfection system being provided on the liquid line connecting the inner and the outer tanks. Since the liquid purification system of the present invention has such an arrangement, the system is quite compact in size to facilitate an easy installation and maintenance at low cost while the system satisfies various performances required for the system used for the purification by filtration, disinfection and adsorption of pool water; drinking water and beverages; industrial water; waste water; rain water and water from river, lake or sea; and the like.

Abstract: A system for purifying nitrogenous waste water by biological nitrification and denitrification, comprises at least two essentially separated reactor chambers, a liquid supply (4) and a liquid discharge (5). The first, aerated reactor chamber (1) is provided at the top with an overflow to the second, oxygen-depleted reactor chamber (2). The oxygen-depleted reactor chamber (2) is divided at the top into a degassing chamber (7) and a settling chamber (8) having an overflow (9) to the liquid discharge. The first reactor chamber is provided with an air supply (11, 18) and an air discharge (12) located above the supply. The first reactor chamber may be partly divided into a riser (14) and a downcomer (15) which allow, as a result of the air supply, mass circulation to take place in the aerated reactor chamber.

Abstract: A continuous, self-cleaning rotary filtering system is herein provided which includes a plurality of filtering elements within a rotatable filter housing adapted for rotation between an inlet plate having single or multiple inlet ports and an outlet plate having single or multiple outlet ports so that a substance to be filtered is passed from the inlet ports through at least one incomplete toroidal cavity within the inlet and outlet plates, through the filter elements and into the outlet ports. The apparatus is further provided with single or multiple backflushing capabilities, whereby, when the filter housing is rotated passed a single or multiple backflush port, a cleaning agent will be caused to flow backward through at least one of the filter elements and backflush ports to purge contaminants from the system via the backflush port or ports without interrupting the stream flow or pressure of the substance to be filtered.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for clarifying a contaminated fluid comprising a separator vessel having therein a pair of cyclonic flow chambers; preliminary spiral separators introduce the contaminated fluid to be separated into the cyclonic flow chambers by tangential inlets so as to establish a swirling body of fluid in each chamber; the cyclonic flow chambers have a shell positioned below their respective tangential inlets for discharging separated solids to a collection area and separating an oil and water mixture into a fluid flow zone formed by the cyclonic flow chambers and the wall of the separator vessel wherein water and oil are separated by aeration provided by sparging tubes; a vertical outlet port discharges separated oil and gas from the upper portion of the cyclonic flow chambers to a fluid flow zone wherein oil and gas are separated. The separated water, oil, gas and solids are removed through discharge ports.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for treating contaminated stormwater runoff from roads and adjacent lands. A multi-stage and self-contained system designed to collect the "first flush" of stormwater runoff (which contains the majority of pollutants) and to treat the pollutants using sedimentation, filtration and constructed wetlands. The apparatus is mass-produced to provide standardized hydrologic controls, important to the reliability of the constructed wetland component of the apparatus.Raw stormwater enters the central sedimentation chamber of the apparatus which is divided into multiple segments designed to provide a series of sedimentation/filtration chambers. Each chamber is divided by a removable filter bulkhead sequenced from coarse to fine sediment sizes. Effluent from the final sedimentation chamber is discharged to the constructed wetland system which surrounds the central sedimentation basin.

Abstract: A filtration device 5 is provided in the state being submerged in slurry comprising adsorbent component stored in a reaction tank 1. The filtration device 5 incorporates a plurality of filtering-membrane elements 8 each comprising a filtering membrane 10 having less than 0.1 .mu.m of through-hole diameter. These filtering-membrane elements 8 are vertically disposed in parallel with each other at predetermined intervals between surfaces of adjoining filtering membranes 10. A suction pump 14 is provided by way of linkage with the filtering-membrane elements 8 via a suction tube 13 for sucking processed liquid. A gas-dispersing device 16 is disposed below the filtering-membrane elements 8. A blower 18 is provided in linkage with the gas-dispersing device 16 via a blowing duct 17. An adsorbent regeneration apparatus 21 and an adsorbent feeding pump 22 are respectively interposed on the halfway of an adsorbent circulation duct 20.

Abstract: A discharge purification system for dry cleaning facilities is disclosed. The system comprises a series of concentric tanks providing settling and filtration treatment for water containing dry cleaning solvents. The device also provides for recycling solvent back to the dry cleaning facility.

Abstract: A wastewater treatment system includes inner and outer relatively telescopic units, the outer telescopic unit including an outer container having a bottom wall and a peripheral wall collectively defining a generally upwardly opening chamber, a filter exteriorly of the peripheral wall and defining therewith a first downstream settling zone, control openings in the peripheral wall for controlling wastewater flow through the first settling zone generally in response to the level of wastewater in the first settling zone, the inner telescopic unit including an inner container having a chamber defined in part by a peripheral wall, the peripheral walls being in relatively spaced relationship to each other and therebetween defining a second settling zone, a third settling zone within the inner telescopic unit chamber, and the inner and outer telescopic units each being a distinct unitized structure which permits the same to be bodily telescopically assembled and disassembled.

Abstract: A closed loop liquid treatment system for removing particulate matter and hydrocarbon waste from a contaminated liquid uses passive filtering systems in combination with an active microbe solution to remove particulate matter and to reduce hydrocarbons to fatty acids and carbon dioxide. A plurality of like stages may be employed to enhance the process. The treated liquid may be used in a closed loop system including a work station to which the liquid is recycled.

Abstract: A filter for a refrigeration unit having a heat exchange fluid supply conduit. The filter is a substantially cylindrical filter screen having a radial flange disposed at each end. One or more filters are disposed along the entire length of the fluid supply conduit to maximize the surface area of the filter screen. Each radial flange has a gasket disposed thereon for providing a seal that prevents the fluid from circumventing the filter screen of the one or more filters. As fluid passes through the conduit, it flows radially through the filter along the entire length of the conduit thereby reducing the adverse effect on fluid pressure in the conduit and passes through the screen, into a volume defined exterior to the filter, thereby minimizing the pressure drop experienced along the fluid supply conduit.

Abstract: A reactor apparatus including a fluid bed reactor wherein liquid to be processed is conducted upwardly therein through a bed to fluidize the bed, the bed including particulate solids having biological material supported thereon, and the liquid forming an effluent head above the bed. The reactor apparatus also includes a control apparatus for removing excess biological material from the reactor. The control apparatus includes a tubular separator column which is emersed in the liquid effluent head, and a telescoping sludge valve that has a draw-off port communicating openly with the effluent head surface and that is adjustable to raise and lower the draw-off port relative to the effluent head surface to control the sludge withdrawal rate. The control apparatus also includes an agitator arrangement that withdraws bed particles from the separator column, shears excess biological material from those particles, and then returns the partially sheared particles and sheared biological material to the separator column.

Abstract: An oil tank including an oil tank body for storing oil and an oil filter disposed between an oil inlet for allowing oil into the oil tank body and an oil outlet for sending oil out. An oil inlet chamber is formed, inside the oil tank body, from a portion of the side wall, a portion of the bottom wall and the inner wall of the tank body, and communicates with the oil inlet. The oil filter has a substantially flat shape and forms a portion of the inner wall. By the use of the oil filter having a reasonably large mesh area, independently of the diameter of the oil inlet, the oil filter is protected against a mesh damage and is prevented from being detached. Since no excessively large area mesh is required, no particular rise in material costs is expected. A substantially flat surface structured oil filter is easy to fabricate and less costly to fabricate as well.

Abstract: Disclosed is a sewage treatment apparatus formed of an aeration chamber; and a settling chamber, into which aerated water is introduced from the aeration chamber for sedimentation of sludges. In this apparatus, the settling chamber is disposed upwardly of the aeration chamber. A bottom portion of the settling chamber serves as a hopper unit having a surface tapered downwards to an opening for discharging the sludges. A washing water supply unit for flowing out the washing water for washing away the deposited sludges is provided towards the hopper unit.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for clarifying a contaminated fluid comprising a separator vessel having therein a cyclonic flow chamber; a spiral preliminary separator introduces the contaminated fluid to be separated into the cyclonic flow chamber by a tangential inlet so as to establish a swirling body of fluid; the cyclonic flow chamber has concentric shells positioned below the tangential inlet for discharging separated solids to a collection area and separating an oil and water mixture into a fluid flow zone formed by the cyclonic flow chamber and the wall of the separator vessel wherein water and oil are separated by aeration provided by eductors; a vertical outlet port discharges separated oil and gas from the upper portion of the cyclonic flow chamber to a fluid flow zone wherein oil and gas are separated. The separated water, oil, gas and solids are removed through discharge ports.

Abstract: A high rate multi-stage bubble separation process is developed for: (a) initially generating coarse gas bubbles with diameters greater than 80 microns in turbulent hydraulic condition to mix an influent water with chemicals, enzymes, microorganisms, or combinations thereof, to produce chemical flocs, biological flocs or both, and to strip volatile contaminants from water; (b) subsequently terminating coarse gas bubbles and generating extremely fine gas bubbles with diameters smaller than 80 microns in laminar hydraulic condition to float suspended, oily and surface-active contaminants together with said chemical flocs and said biological flocs from water, to settle heavy contaminants from water, and to produce a clarified effluent water, a floating scum, and a sludge; (c) terminating the fine gas bubbles and discharging the clarified effluent water; (d) discharging the floating scum and the sludge upon demand; and (e) optionally collecting and treating an emitted gas stream resulting from said coarse gas bubb

Abstract: An activation plant for the treatment of waste water by the activated sludge method is disclosed wherein the plant has an outer, annular activation tank, a concentric, inner, funnel shaped secondary sedimentation tank, and a rotating aeration bridge rotating about the central axis. The return sludge, excess sludge, and floating sludge chambers, and the associated pumps, are provided in a central shaft that is the central axis for the concentric tanks. The floating sludge chamber is supplied by an annular trough circumscribing the central shaft. Clean water is removed through a conduit in the central shaft. The central shaft, chambers, and aeration bridge are supported by at least three rectangular tubes that are mounted on the wall of the secondary sedimentation tank and extend radially from the conduit for clean water in the central shaft. The rectangular tubes provide a flow space for clean water from the activation plant and are connected to outlet troughs for collecting the clean water.

Abstract: A water purifying system including two or more stages for removing organic and inorganic contaminants from source water. The system may be configured such that water is first passed through a biocidal resin, and then through a granular metal alloy and an activated carbon filter to remove iodides released into the water by the biocidal resin. The granular metal alloy may be agitated by turbulent motion as the water treated.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a wastewater treatment facility including a stacked tank clarifier having a lower tank, and an upper tank above the lower tank, the upper tank having a bottom defining a ceiling of the lower tank, and the lower tank further having a floor. The wastewater treatment facility includes a mechanism for scraping the ceiling of the lower tank. The mechanism includes a driven endless chain loop in the lower tank, and a buoyant member carried by the chain loop.

Abstract: Provided below the funnel-shaped outlet opening of a receptacle filled with wet slag sand is an outlet funnel which is closed to begin with and forms a conical annular gap around the receptacle. This gap fills with slag sand, as a result of which dewatering occurs according to the principle of the siphon effect.

Abstract: An oil accumulation system having a first separating station and a second separating station, wherein the first separating station includes a tank for receiving contaminated water with an inclined plate separator disposed therein. The tank has an adjustable skimmer which delivers oily waste water to the second separating station by gravity. The second separating station includes an outer housing which encompasses an inner housing, forming two interior chamber. The inner chamber collects the oily waste from the skimmer for additional oil/water separation by use of a first laminar flow area, or alternatively by use of a fiber foam filter. At the bottom of the inner housing is an outlet, which forms an inlet to the second interior chamber, so that water is gravity-forced from the first chamber to the second chamber, forming a second laminar flow area for further oil/water separation.

Abstract: A waste water treatment plant is disclosed that uses aerobic bacteria to digest solid particles in the waste water. The plant includes a filter located just upstream of the outlet through which the water leaves the plant. The filter comprises an elongated sheet of plastic material that is wound upon itself with adjacent layers narrowly spaced to form an elongated narrow passageway. Aerobic bacteria grows on the walls of the passageway and across the top of the filter to digest the last solid particles from the water as the water slowly rises through the filter.

Abstract: An apparatus for separating solids and liquids includes a pair of compaction chambers into each of which is inserted a fifty five gallon drum that receives the liquids and solids before they are separated. A compaction platen has a liquid-retaining wall mounted about its periphery in trailing relation to the platen, and separation of the solids and liquids is accomplished by lowering the platen into a container that has been filled with flotsam including liquids and solids. The platen has a breadth slightly less than the breadth of the container so that liquids may escape around the peripheral border of the platen as it descends into the container. The escaping liquids are collected on the trailing end of the platen by the retention wall and are carried under a vacuum or pumped to a liquid storage facility for further treatment. The platen is telescopically mounted in a housing that reciprocates between the compaction chambers so that the separation process is continuous.

Abstract: An activated sludge treating apparatus for use in treating wastewater, such as gray water and sewage. A plurality of filter membrane modules are vertically arranged in parallel at predetermined intervals within a treating tank. The water to be treated which is stored in the treating tank is separated into solid and liquid by the filter membrane modules, and water that has passed through the filter membrane modules is extracted as treated water. An agitating device is disposed at a level below the filter membrane modules.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for purifying a reservoir of water is disclosed employing an elongated lift tube suspended in a water tank for conveying water from and into the reservoir and introducing an air stream containing ozone in the bottom of the lift tube for causing passage of water through a filter into the lift tube upward movement of the water in the lift tube for purifying the water. Magnets (448) with their north poles facing one another are placed on opposite sides of the water received in the lift tube and ozone is diverted into water that is pumped into the reservoir.

Abstract: Accordingly, the present invention, in one embodiment, encompasses an apparatus for the fluidized catalytic cracking of a hydrocarbon feed comprising: a riser which is generally vertically positioned within a catalyst disengaging zone and which has a plurality of openings around the circumference of the riser at its discharge end. The openings in the riser have a vertical stub portion that extends tangentially outwardly from the riser and communicates with a first end of an upwardly sloping curvilinear tunnel that terminates at a second end. The second end of the tunnel opens into a tangential opening in the primary cyclone. The area of the opening of the first end of the tunnel is larger than the area of the opening of the second end of the tunnel.

Abstract: A biochemical water filter comprising a cylindrical shell, a solar light tube and several ultraviolet tubes disposed in the shell so as to cultivate nitric bacteria to get rid of harmful bacteria with help of the light tubes for purifying water used in an aquarium, and a plurality of filtering plates for useful bacteria to fasten and grow thereon and for filtering water.

Abstract: A fluid separator apparatus using a cylinder in which a piston is fitted and a conic tank is placed on top of the cylinder. The apparatus functions on the basis of the different densities of the liquids. The lighter liquid placed on top of a heavier liquid will enter into the conic tank first by the upward movement of the piston. As the piston moves upward, the lighter liquid enters into an exit pipe at the top of the conical tank and passes into a container outside of the apparatus. The fluid separator also contains a solid particle stainer and sweeping means to continually clean said stainer. Coloring means are included to permit visual inspection of the separation of the liquids at the various parts of the apparatus.

Abstract: Water purification apparatus includes a tank having an opening, a stopper removably engaging the opening in watertight relationship therewith, the stopper having a raw water passage in communication with the exterior of the tank and with the interior of the tank. A pure-water passage is in communication with the interior of said tank and an activated carbon column within said tank and in communication with said pure-water passage. The tank also containing a mixed bed ion exchange resin exterior to the activated carbon column and in communication with the raw water passage and with said activated carbon column. Raw water enters the tank through the stopper, passes through the resin and then through the activated carbon and exits the apparatus through the pure-water passage. A method for purifying water includes the steps of passing water through a mixed bed ion exchange resin and then through an activated carbon column.

Abstract: This is a rapidly deployable system for containing, collecting and storing an oil or other fluid spill occurring in a body of water. A plurality of flexible, cylindrical boom sections with depending coplanar flexible skirts, are detachably connected end to end to form an elongated boom assembly which may be as much as 400 feet long, for surrounding the fluid spill in the water. Each of the boom sections has apertures along one side to admit fluid from the spill. Long coil springs in the boom sections maintain the sections in cylindrical form while permitting lateral flexing of the boom sections. Floating skimmers in the boom sections collect fluid entering the boom sections via the apertures. The skimmers pass the fluid to a flexible collector pipe in the boom sections. The collector pipe is connected to pumps in housings interposed in the boom assembly. Flexible skirts also depend from the pump housings.

Abstract: A filter cartridge for water purification consisting of several layers of filter material with successively smaller pore size. The outer layer is a prefiltration material with a pore size of approximately 10 microns, the central layer is an extruded carbon filter with a pore size of approximately 5 microns, and the inner layer is a ceramic filter with a pore size of approximately 0.9 microns. The extruded carbon layer of the filter is impregnated with a chemical agent to effect the removal of lead and other heavy metals, while the ceramic layer has been impregnated with silver to prevent bacterial buildup. The filter cartridge provides almost complete removal of chlorine, organic compounds, lead, heavy metals, particulate matter and microorganisms.

Abstract: Oil and water separated from the oily condensates produced by the operation of various machinery, particularly air compressors. A large tank having turbulence-free primary and secondary separation chambers receives the oil and water mixtures and separates the oil from the water by a two-phase gravity separation. A third phase of oil and water separation is provided by an external activated carbon filter to produce a clean, sheen-free water.

Abstract: A system for prolonging the life of a GAC water treatment device in which an ultraviolet light transparent material is used to constrain water to flow over carbon surfaces configured to receive maximum flux from a U/V radiation source, for the purpose of preventing microbial proliferation on the carbon surfaces, oxidizing organic contaminants adsorbed from the water onto the carbon surfaces and from biodegradation of adsorbed microbial forms, disinfecting water, and oxidizing organic contaminants in the water.

Abstract: A process and apparatus is provided for collecting a patient's blood for re-use of autotransfusion, in which blood is collected from a patient and delivered for treatment in a container, outside the patient, for later re-use or retransfusion to the patient. The treatment given to the blood before autotransfusion may reside in treating the blood to resist coagulation, treating the blood for removal of fats from the blood, or in removing other substances from the blood. The treatment, insofar as it is used to cause the blood to resist coagulation, includes withdrawing calcium ions from the blood and replacing them with other ions in sufficiently small quantities that the amount of other substance that is added to the blood is not harmful, preferably by passing the blood through a bed of ion exchange polymeric resin material. Insofar as fats are moved from the blood, the treatment includes collecting blood from the patient and wicking fats from the blood by means of a hydrophobic lipophilic wick.

Abstract: A solid and liquid separator with a liquid filter, having an inner cylinder and an outer cylinder combined together to rotate synchronously to let solids naturally separate from liquid, and a filter for the separated liquid to be further filtered and the separated solids to be collected together away.

Abstract: A liquid purifying device for dispensing a liquid, including a container which has an interior space for storing a liquid, and a lid member for closing the interior space. The liquid is delivered out of the container, due to a pressure of a compressed air which is introduced into the interior space by air pumping means. The air pumping means includes a cylinder member which is reciprocated between an advanced position and a retracted position. The cylinder member is normally biased toward the advanced position, but may be held in the retracted position where appropriate. The lid member of the container has a liquid delivery path through which the liquid is delivered as desired, when a valve disposed in the path is placed in its open position upon pressing of a push-operated member. In the liquid delivery path, there is provided a filter adapted to remove bacteria from the liquid delivered through the path.

Abstract: A settling apparatus for the separation of amalgam from waste water in a dental procedure includes an inclined passage through which the water is caused to flow from below and upwards while depositing amalgam. The inclined passage has an inclination of between 3.degree. and 15.degree.. It is filled with a large number of thin-walled, narrow tubes, which contact each other in a side-by-side manner. The water flows from below and upwards through the tubes and through the channels between the tubes while amalgam is settled and deposited on the interior, as well as on the exterior, surfaces of the tubes.

Abstract: The invention discloses a machine for the filtering of solid, in particular fibrous, particles suspended in liquids, including a delivery chamber (2) collecting the liquid to be treated, a raceway (3) leading the liquid to be treated into a treatment chamber (4) having a cylindrical bottom (5), wherein there is at least one pair of revolving filters (6, 7), an overflow chamber (16) connected with a recycling tank and an area (21) for the discharge of the recovered solid particles. In the machine each filter (12) has a surface in the shape of a truncated cone and its horizontal axis is essentially perpendicular to the flow direction of the liquid to be treated, the two filters are coaxial with each other and face each other, so as to form a concave space (20) therebetween. The taper of the filters causes the double effect of increasing the filtering performance of the machine and of avoiding its standstill when the delivery of liquid to be treated increases.

Abstract: The apparatus of the present invention is a cleaning system to be employed in the clarifier. A track is mounted to opposing sides of the clarifier. A scraping blade spans the two rails. A mechanism connects the two ends of the blade to the tracks and provides for stepwise movement of the blade bidirectionally within the clarifier. Movement of the blade over slots found in the clarifier bottom results in displacement of sludge from the clarifier back into the orbital ditch. The moving mechanisms are preferably located adjacent the clarifier floor. The scraping blade moves in stepwise motion over each of the slots, displacing sludge through such slots. At the same time a suction header, with inlets on both sides of the blade, allows some of the sludge to be suctioned from the bottom of the clarifier and removed from the orbital ditch system.

Abstract: A coagulation reaction tank comprises a cylindrical tank provided in the central part thereof with a rotary stirring mechanism furnished with stirring vanes and a filtration tank for introducing the liquid from within the cylindrical tank in the form of filtrate and discharging the filtrate out of the cylindrical tank. This coagulation reaction tank is characterized by the fact that the filtration tank provided in the bottom thereof with slits is disposed in the cylindrical tank above the stirring vanes or the cylindrical tank provided in the upper part of the wall thereof with slits and the filtration tank is disposed outside the slits.

Abstract: A water filtering canister unit having self-contained reverse osmosis and activated carbon filtering systems which are adapted for connection onto the water tap in a home, apartment or office. The canister unit includes a housing defining an inner chamber in which a cylindrical reverse osmosis membrane is mounted. Water molecules which pass through the membrane continue through a capsule containing a body of activated carbon particles and thence outwardly through a discharge conduit. Dissolved salts and minerals as well as particulate matter rejected by the membrane are discharged in brine water at a controlled rate through a lower end cap on the housing.

Abstract: A water purifying device including a cartridge type container which comprises an outer cylinder, an intermediate cylinder and an inner cylinder which are concentrically arranged in a compact housing of the purifying device. The outer and intermediate cylinders are connected at the top, the intermediate and inner cylinders are connected at the bottom, and the cylinders are filled with water purifying materials such as high purity active carbon, silver-somelite and ceramic balls so that water taken in via the housing's water inlet is purified while it flows through the three cylinders and is taken out through the housing's water outlet.

Abstract: The treatment of water by a biological technique. The water to be treated circulates in the interior of the reactor, in the space (2) located above the partition (1). It is aerated and agitated by a diffuser (3); it enters the reactor by the opening (4) and leaves by the opening (5). A volume of confined water, poor in oxygen, occupies at the bottom of the reactor the space (6) located below the partition (1) and has across its thickness a layer supersaturated in oxygen (10) occupied by the microalgae and aerobic microorganisms; a region rich in oxygen (11) occupied by aerobic microorganisms; a region (12) poor in oxygen and occupied by anaerobic microorganisms; and an intermediate region (13) occupied by aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms. The invention is applicable particularly, in its closed circuit configuration, to aquaria and by means of either a closed circuit or an open circuit, to the treatment of water.

Abstract: An individual wastewater treatment plant 1 including an aeration piping sub-system 27, 28 and an inverted, cone-shaped clarifier 13 concentrically suspended within an outer tank 10, the clarifier being supported by a support grid of standard-type PVC plastic pipe elements, including a series of four radially disposed pipe sections 21 engaging the clarifier and supporting and positioning the aeration piping system. The aeration piping is force fitted into "U" shaped slots formed in the support grid. Two embodiments for the clarifier engagement and support sub-system are disclosed, one using a series of peripherally spaced, thin slotted, inverted "T" elements 23 (FIG. 4) and the other using radial pipe sections 30 extending through the wall of the clarifier (FIG. 6), with the latter using a side-ways "U" slot 31 to hold the aeration piping and the first embodiment using inverted "U" 26 slots formed in the bottom of additional "T" elements 25 (FIG. 3).

Abstract: Process equipment is provided enabling a plurality of non-soluble lower specific gravity oils to be more effectively separated and collected from an aqueous liquid medium. The equipment utilizes gravity flow to separately remove surface oil constituents according to relative specific gravity in combination with a coalescing medium permitting oil constituents dispersed in the liquid medium to also be removed and with oil collection taking place at multiple locations in said equipment. A method operating the equipment in such manner is also disclosed.

Abstract: The invention is a concentric microporous tubular membrane device containing ion exchange or absorbent particles within the annular region formed by the concentric microporous tubular membranes. The device is useful for carrying out ion exchange or absorbent processes such as scavenging metals or organics from wastewater.

Abstract: An apparatus is disclosed for purification and/or sterilization or disinfection of water which has a head with water inlet and outlet openings and a housing secured in water tight relation to said head in which there is a cylindrical filter, preferably of activated charcoal. Between the filter and the housing is an outer water channel communicating with the water inlet so that water entering the apparatus is purified by passing through the filter to an inner channel communicating with the water outlet. Water is sterilized or disinfected by an ultraviolet lamp inside the filter over which water that has passed through it flows to the water outlet. The apparatus may be used in multiples which are connected in series or parallel to obtain a greater degree of filtration and disinfection than obtainable in a single unit.

Abstract: A thickener well is provided in one end of a digester orbital ditch having a pair of channels and an elongated center partition spaced from a pair of ditch endwalls, the overall ditch forming a basin for digestion of wasted sludge. A curved endwall of the ditch provides a common curved top outer peripheral wall of the thickener well. The remainder of the well has a cylindrical configuration integral with the orbital ditch bottom and extending downwardly therefrom to a position below the horizontal plane of the ditch bottom. A sludge raking structure is positioned at the bottom of the well for periodically raking settled sludge into a sludge outlet at the bottom of the well. A surface aerator is provided between and spaced from the other ditch endwall and a juxtaposed end of the partition or other aeration apparatus mounted in a channel(s) to aerate and propel a liquid-solids sludge mixture wasted from a secondary treatment apparatus and fed into the orbital ditch.

Abstract: A combined oxidation orbital ditch and intraclarifier has the intraclarifier in the form of an elongated clarifier vessel positioned on the top of a section of the center partition between the ditch sidewalls so that the overall clarifier vessel extends laterally into both of a pair of flow channels formed between the ditch sidewalls and the center partition but is spaced from the ditch sidewalls so as to minimize impediment of the mixed liquor flow being treated in the channels. A gated inlet below the flow surface is provided in the one half of the bow of the vessel facing into the mixed liquor flow for diverting a portion of the flow into the clarifier. That flow portion is distributed over the entire width of the vessel and arrested in flow velocity so that settling of sludge can be performed downstream in the vessel.

Abstract: A water filtering canister unit having self-contained reverse osmosis and activaated carbon filtering systems which are adapted for connection onto the water tap in a home, apartment or office. The canister unit includes a housing defining an inner chamber in which a cylindrical reverse osmosis membrane is mounted. Water molecules which pass through the membrane continue through a capsule containing a body of activated carbon particles and thence outwardly through a discharge conduit. Dissolved salts and minerals as well as particulate matter rejected by the membrane are discharged in brine water at a controlled rate through a lower end cap on the housing.