Abstract: An apparatus for producing drinking water from bacteria contaminated cold water is provided. The cold contaminated water is placed into a flexible collector having a sub-micron porous filter in the bottom. When the flexible collector is squeezed, the pressure forces the contaminated water through the filter and into a holding chamber. The drinkable filtered water is removed from the holding chamber through a sterile exit opening.

Abstract: A device for separating magnetic particles from a fluid stream including an enclosure, an inlet and an outlet conduit communicating with the top portions of the enclosure, and a baffle interposed therebetween causing fluids passing from the inlet to the outlet to traverse to a lowermost portion of the enclosure, in proximate location to a magnetic source whereby the intimate contact thereon causes magnetic particles entrained in the fluid to be removed.

Abstract: A backwashing alluvial filter has a vertical filter container, a plurality of collecting pipes removably mounted in the container, a plurality of filter elements suspended on the collecting pipes, separating walls subdividing the interior of the filter container into at least two chambers, and communicating with one another via vertical overflow shafts. Washing off of solid matter is performed by supplying a washing liquid via pipes directly under the overflow shafts.

Abstract: A double-walled receptacle formed of inner and outer open-topped containers, the inner one fitting within the outer so as to be upwardly removable therefrom. The inner container is divided into upper and lower compartments by a foraminous partition and the lower part of the inner container wall has a plurality of fluid drain apertures below the partition. The partition is mounted so as to be easily removable upwardly from the inner container. The partition receives the solid, semi-solid portions, etc., of the specimens and fluids escape into the lower compartment. Flushing media used in the collection of the specimens escapes via the drain apertures and is caught by the outer container. A removable cover closes the open tops of both containers.

Abstract: A filter means for filtering fluid comprises a first filter section and a second filter section. The filter means is formed by using a folded sheet material having a trapezoid or a sector form. The second filter section of the filter means has a filtering performance different from that of the first filter section of the filter means.

Abstract: A methfd of filtering fine solids from a fluid (gas or liquid) flowing upwardly through a chamber containing a semifluidized bed of discrete filter particles. During a filtering operation, the upper or packed section of the bed is immobilized by a porous retainer at the top of the chamber and, as the operation proceeds, the packed bed section gradually expands downwardly, and the fluidized bed section below it progressively decreases in size, thereby extending the duration of the filtration run and yielding a more uniform distribution of solids throughout the filter medium.

Abstract: The method of feeding an insoluble organic solid material in the form of an organic resin or biological matter containing contaminating material such as radioactive waste from a nuclear facility or from treatment of animal or plant tissue in a laboratory or medical facility into a vessel containing water and to which ultraviolet light and ozone, preferably by sparging, are applied while the water is being agitated to distribute the ozone. The ozone oxidizes the organic resin or biological material, which disintegrates on oxidation substantially into water and carbon dioxide, leaving substantially no resin or biological material after treatment by the ultraviolet light and ozone for a prescribed period of time, and leaving the contaminant material as a precipitate or in solution in the remaining water or as an escaping gas, in any of which forms it can be readily separated from the water for disposal or further treatment.

Abstract: Tailings from an oil sands hot water process extraction plant are mixed with hydrolyzed starch flocculant and transferred to a settling pond. After a residence period on the order of one year, sludge from the lower region of the settling pond is withdrawn, mixed with a hydrolyzed starch dewatering agent and transferred to a collecting pond. After a residence period on the order of one week, partially dewatered sludge is withdrawn, mixed with sand, and deposited in a terminal disposal area, the sand in the mixture there effecting an internal surcharge to obtain further dewatering. The hydrolyzed starch additives are obtained by the aqueous hydrolysis of a starch in the presence of one or more metal salts.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an apparatus for the purification of water by ultraviolet radiation.A pipe traversed by the liquid to be purified contains an ultraviolet lamp and an electrovalve electrically connected in series with the lamp and placed upstream of the latter. The resistance of the electrovalve is substantially equal to the load impedance of the lamp, the assembly being supplied with power by a solar collector.Application to the purification of water.

Abstract: A pressure vessel has a container shaped housing with a top wall provided with a plurality of filter receiving openings. A bag-shaped filter element is fitted into each housing top wall opening and is retained within the top wall housing by a hold-down ring having one of its ends pivotally secured to the top wall to permit the ring to be moved between a first position overlaying a portion of each filter to retain the filters in position within their respective top wall openings and a second position wherein the ring is pivoted upwardly from the housing top wall to permit the removal of each filter bag. A cover encloses the pressure vessel at the top wall section and the interior of the cover forms a flow path between an inlet and the filter bags such that liquid to be filtered passes from the inlet downwardly through the filter bags and into the interior of the housing beneath the top wall and is exhausted through a liquid outlet provided in the housing.

Abstract: A filter-thickening apparatus including a thickener tank having tubular filter units suspended therein is disclosed. A liquid-solids suspension is supplied to the tank and an overflow pipe is spaced in a filtrate compartment above the filter units for draining a filtrate liquid from the tank. The filter units preferably include either an accumulator grating or a filter cloth which is sealed along narrow bands to form a pattern of filtering areas or both. Processes for filtering the liquid-solids suspension are also disclosed.

Abstract: Magnetically attractive impurities such as oxides of iron are removed from a molten salt bath using a magnetic force in the form of either a permanent magnet or an electromagnet encased in a magnetically transparent refractory capable of withstanding both the heat and chemical corrosiveness of a molten salt bath in which the impurities such as iron oxides are present.

Abstract: A particle washing system and method of use is described wherein in a preferred embodiment the fluid containing the desired particles is placed within an inner tube having near the bottom thereof an orifice with a diameter at least equal to that of the diameter of the particles, and wherein the inner tube is positioned within an outer tube having a fluid with a density at least equal to that of the solution containing the particles to be separated but less than that of the particles. The application of centrifugal force to the particles directed toward the bottom of the outer tube causes the particles to move through the orifice and through the outer solution contained within the outer tube so that the particles are collected from the inner solution, washed by the outer solution, and subsequently sedimented at the bottom of the outer tube.

Abstract: Apparatus for physically separating a mixture of a first less dense liquid and a second more dense liquid has an upright container with a liquid inlet, a lower outlet adjacent the bottom and having a flow control valve, a lower float in the container but above the lower outlet, a second float above the lower float, an upper outlet above the second float, and an upper float above the upper outlet; the lower and second floats are connected in parallel with the lower float being connected to the lower outlet valve, and the second and upper floats are connected in series to the upper outlet valve; the lower and second floats are fillable and sink in the less dense liquid and rise in the more dense liquid, the upper float is air filled and rises in either liquid.

Abstract: A device for diafiltration comprising a housing having an inlet, first and second outlets, a diaphragm disposed in the housing and means for sealing the diaphragm in the housing so that the material entering the inlet and not passing through the diaphragm is removed by the first outlet while the material passing through the diaphragm is removed from the housing through the second outlet characterized by the improvements of the diaphragms being formed by a plurality of capillary diaphragms arranged with the housing to require the least structural volume and each of the capillary diaphragms being an inorganic material, such as porous glass, which is chemically modified in a known manner, such as being treated with molecules including radicals, such as silane derivatives, with the functional groups.

Abstract: A multistage water purification method in which water purifiers are arranged in stages in water regions of different depths. Air is made to ascend intermittently in each depth region by the water purifier to stir and mix the water with the air to enrich the water in oxygen thereby to purify the water. Disclosed also is a water purification apparatus for carrying out the water purification method. The apparatus includes an upper stage water purifier having a buoyancy chamber, a pumping sleeve and water suction tubes, and at least one lower stage water purifier having an arcuate deflector, a pumping sleeve and an air chamber. The upper stage water purifier and the lower stage water purifier are connected in series in vertical alignment or, alternatively, offset in the horizontal direction from each other.

Abstract: A particle washing system and method of use is described wherein in a preferred embodiment the fluid containing the desired particles is placed within an inner tube having near the bottom thereof an orifice with a diameter at least equal to that of the diameter of the particles, an air vent and, wherein the inner tube is positioned within an outer tube having a fluid with a density at least equal to that of the solution containing the particles to be separated within the inner tube but less than that of the particles. The application of centrifugal force to the particles directed toward the bottom of the outer tube causes the particles to move through orifice and through the outer solution contained within the outer tube so that the particles are collected from the inner solution, washed by the outer solution, and subsequently sedimented at the bottom of the outer tube.

Abstract: A centrifugal separator, especially a pusher centrifuge is disclosed, wherein at least one rotatable sieve or filter drum is mounted within a housing. Within the sieve or filter drum there is arranged a to-and-fro displaceable pusher or thrust element, for instance in the form of a pusher floor member, which serves for displacing solid materials in the form of a filter cake towards outlet or discharge openings for the treated product. To process thin suspensions with the pusher centrifuge the pusher floor member is arranged for oscillating movement between two turning or deflection points preferably located at the region of an imaginary central line of the sieve or filter drum. A feed or supply pipe for the infeed of the suspension which is to be separated extends substantially coaxially with respect to the sieve or filter drum and its outlet or outflow opening, which extends radially outwardly, is located essentially at the center between the turning or deflection points of the pusher floor member.

Abstract: A filter for removing solid contaminants from plastic melt as well as homogenizing the plastic melt prior to injection, including a generally cylindrical filter screen having an inlet passage receiving the unfiltered plastic melt. Axially arranged series of relatively large diameter holes extend between the inlet passage and filter grooves formed in the surface of the filter screen. A first stage, coarse filtration is achieved by flow through the holes radially outwardly from the inlet passage into each of the filter grooves. A second stage, fine filtration occurs by flow from the filter grooves through circumferential clearance spaces located between each of several lands separating the filter grooves and the interior of the filter cavity. Filtered plastic is collected in axially extending discharge grooves also formed in the filter screen surface intermediate the pairs of filter grooves.

Abstract: A collecting rope which is intended especially for collecting oil from the surface of water, the rope comprising a drive chain which is situated inside a cylindrical part, which is surrounded by a lightweight float layer, which is surrounded by another cylindrical part, oil-collecting bristles being attached to the outer surface of the outer cylinder. The cylindrical parts can rotate in relation to the drive chain, since the joint between them consists of resilient protrusions on the inner surface of the inner cylinder. The cylinders and the chain are, however, locked to each other in the longitudinal direction.