Ship-board system for decontaminating wastewater contaminated by firefighting operations
OwnerGerard Lynchinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A water pollution remediation system includes a plurality of decontamination modules that are self supporting and interconnectable for sequentially removing a plurality of different contaminants. The modules are designed to be independently transportable to a ship for decontaminating bilge water, in particular, after a fire when a foaming fire suppressant composition has been introduced into the bilge water. The modules may be placed on the deck of the ship, connected together and powered by the ship's hydraulic, electric and bilge pumping systems to provide comprehensive decontamination.
Claims30
An apparatus for decontaminating water at a site of a reservoir holding contaminated water, comprising an inlet into which the contaminated water flows;
- and outlet from which decontaminated water is discharged;
- and a plurality of water processing modules, each having an independent support structure for holding at least one associated water processing device in a position suitable for transport to and operation at the site of the reservoir holding the contaminated water, said at least one associated water processing device of each of said plurality of modules being selectively and removeably hydraulically connectable to another of said at least one associated water processing device of another of said plurality of modules to define a continuous flow path extending from said inlet, through said apparatus to said outlet, each of said at least one associated water processing devices having an associated decontamination function for at least partially removing a contaminant from a flow of the contaminated water passed sequentially through said plurality of modules along said flow path.
A method for on-site removal of a plurality of contaminants from a volume of contaminated water contained in a reservoir, comprising the following steps:
- (a) providing a plurality of water processing modules, each having an independent support structure for holding at least one associated water processing device in a position suitable for transport to and operation at the site of the reservoir holding the contaminated water, said at least one associated water processing device of each of said plurality of modules being selectively and removeably hydraulically connectable to another of said at least one associated water processing device of another of said plurality of modules to define a continuous flow path extending from an inlet to said apparatus into which contaminated water flows, through said apparatus to an outlet from which decontaminated water is discharged, each of said at least one associated water processing devices having an associated decontamination function for at least partially removing a contaminant from a flow of the contaminated water passed sequentially through said plurality of modules along said flow path;
- (b) transporting said plurality of modules to a position proximate to the reservoir;
- (c) placing the modules on a support surface in a selected relative juxtaposition;
- (d) connecting the water processing devices to configure the flow path;
- (e) operating the apparatus to remove contaminants from the contaminated water;
- (f) disconnecting the water processing devices;
- and
- (g) removing the modules from the site.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.