This paper reports on improvements to aggregation kinetics of colloidal particles in
municipal water treatment by the use of curved fluidic structures, resulting in up to 50% reduction
in coagulant dosage. A novel high throughput, purely fluidic, continuous flow, membrane-less,
size selective method for particulate separation has been recently reported where centrifugal force
created in spiral flow channels generate transverse hydrodynamic forces to separate micron-sized
neutrally buoyant particles which are further focused and diverted for extraction. Together, the
improved aggregation and particulate separation offer a potentially transformative approach to
the conventional practice of water treatment. The combined effects of the spiral mixers with
improved agglomeration to generate denser and uniformly sized pin floc, and spiral separators
for in-line clarification presents an opportunity to eliminate flocculation and sedimentation steps,
resulting in potentially significant savings in reduced land use, chemical cost, operational
overhead, and faster processing time from raw to finished water. This technology improvement is
also directly relevant to other water applications, including: industrial water purification; wastewater reclamation; power plant cooling towers; pretreatment for reverse osmosis; and, almost any instance where
reduction of TSS loading reduces clogging and extends the time between cleaning for many microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes. Includes 3 references, tables, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 2 MB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 12 |
| Published : | 11/01/2008 |
