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US 12,473,220 B2Granted
Systems and methods for treating a wastewater stream
AssigneeUniversity of South Florida
InventorsAhmet Erkan Uman, Daniel H. Yeh, Robert Alonso Bair
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Provided herein are systems and methods for treating a wastewater stream. In one embodiment, a wastewater stream is treated using a settling tank, a membrane feed tank, and at least one filtration unit.
Claims13
A wastewater treatment system comprising:
- a settling tank including:
- an inlet configured to receive an inlet wastewater stream;
- a plurality of baffles or tubes disposed in an interior space of the settling tank;
- a solids outlet disposed near a bottom end of the settling tank;
- and
- a supernatant outlet disposed above the solids outlet;
- a membrane feed tank including:
- an inlet configured to receive all or a portion of supernatant liquid from the settling tank supernatant outlet;
- a solids outlet disposed near a bottom end of the membrane feed tank;
- and
- a fluid outlet disposed above the solids outlet;
- wherein the supernatant liquid passes through the fluid outlet;
- and,
- a first filtration unit including:
- a filtration inlet configured to receive all or a portion of supernatant liquid from the membrane feed tank;
- and,
- porous filtration media disposed to separate the filtration unit into a permeate side that allows permeate to exit the filtration unit through a permeate outlet and a retentate side that allows retentate to exit the filtration unit through a retentate outlet;
- and
- wherein the wastewater treatment system further comprises a configuration wherein the membrane feed tank further includes a second fluid inlet configured and fluidly connected to receive all or a portion of the retentate from the filtration unit retentate outlet.
16 more elements
A method for treating wastewater, the method comprising:
- (i) feeding wastewater to a settling tank that separates the wastewater into a concentrate stream and a supernatant stream, wherein the concentrate stream exits the settling tank through a solids outlet disposed near a bottom end of the settling tank, and wherein the supernatant stream exits the settling tank through a supernatant outlet disposed above the solids outlet:
- (ii) feeding the supernatant stream to a membrane feed tank that separates the supernatant stream into a second concentrate stream and a second supernatant stream, wherein the second concentrate stream exits the membrane feed tank through a solids outlet disposed near a bottom end of the membrane feed tank and wherein the supernatant stream exits the membrane feed tank through a fluid outlet disposed above the solids outlet;
- and
- (iii) feeding the second supernatant stream to a filtration unit comprising porous filtration media that separates the second supernatant stream into a permeate stream and a retentate stream, wherein the retentate stream exiting the filtration unit is recycled back to the membrane feed tank;
- further comprising feeding the concentrate streams exiting the settling unit and the membrane feed tank to an anaerobic bioreactor having microorganisms that break down organic material to produce a biogas.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.